HR 7a Weyrartists of High Reaches
by slytherinsal
Summary: 8/17/2522 - 3/22/2524 Life in the Weyr from the point of view of Geriana and the artists who join her and make art a really useful part of Weyr life as Carlinna finally learns to be a true artist and associations with the new Printcraft become important.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

When Carlinna had washed her face and made herself presentable again she found she felt far from the despondent girl who had cried so bitterly on her bunk!

In fact, she felt excited and happy.

"Oh Geriana, I think you're right!" she said "If I don't Impress this time, I shall take a whole turn to become a better artist before I even try again!"

"I think you'd be wise in that" said Geriana. "It will make you a happier, more contented person once you have learned to succeed; and that will make you more likely to Impress, you know!"

Carlinna nodded; it did make a lot of sense! Really, she was seeing sense a lot more clearly now, once the fog of self-delusion had been stripped from her by Master Agatta and by Geriana too. She knew that even of Golden Queenriders not all had been of the highest calibre – High Reaches Weyr had its own example in Kylara. She shuddered; Kylara lived within the lower caverns, occasionally brought out into the air when the dragons were mostly away fighting Thread, as the sight of dragons now made the Bereft woman collapse into near catatonia. Her vacant stare frightened many a weyrling into a determination to be careful with his own dragon! And Carlinna knew that the reason for inadequate Weyrwomen often came from an insufficient choice presented to a Golden Queen egg; or a candidate favoured by the senior Bronze Riders because they fancied her! It was one reason High Reaches accorded more respect to female Green Riders and counted them in a more senior capacity than the colour of their Dragon would usually cause them to occupy; because it had been the outspoken opinion of a large number of High Reaches Riders that their female Green Riders were, many of them, more suited to Queens than some of the Queenriders around. That most of them also settled cheerfully to administrative secondary jobs and troubleshooting with non weyrfolk meant that they shouldered the responsibilities often taken by junior Queenriders too. Which left the Queenriders the tough jobs but relieved them of a lot of the minor worries.

And there was no shortage of candidates this time; the Green dragon hatchlings would have the pick of boys, women and girls alike. Many people believed that the choices were made as early as the first viewing of the eggs; though the capacity for those of less than excellent demeanour to change seemed to affect the hatchlings too. As T'lana put it, 'they remember into the future'.

It seemed strange; and Carlinna wondered if she was now intending to do her best if a dragonet would have remembered that she was going to do so; and yet she half hoped that she would not Impress, to be an even better person for another, future hatchling!

oOoOo

Geriana linked her arm with her new friend's, and drew her across the Bowl to the eating cavern where a feast was being held in Master Artist Agatta's honour. Agatta had been invited by L'rilly to give an honest critique of the work of several artistically inclined at the Weyr, ostensibly to advise who should treat their art as a hobby and who should be trained; but in reality because of a pact L'rilly had made with Carlinna to try to stop the girl's foolish feud with Geriana.

And Geriana had been acclaimed by the Master; and was to be given papers of competence by Agatta to be permitted to call herself Journeyman; and the Master wanted to meet her! Carlinna had received some harsh and some less harsh and certainly truthful criticism and Geriana had been generous enough to come to comfort her rather than going to spend more time with an acclaimed Master.

At the door of the cavern, Carlinna started to disengage her arm; but Geriana held tight.

"Oh no you don't!" she said "You shall meet Agatta too and I'll ask her if she'll help me start re-training you!"

"But…..it's your moment!" protested Carlinna.

"Our moment" said Geriana, reflecting that there was a basic decency to a girl who would give the limelight to a former rival once she realised her own behaviour had been unreasonable. "I need the Master who will give me release papers to meet the other senior apprentices – you and B'kas. I know he's a colourman more than an artist, but he's competent enough when he puts his mind to drawing. He makes a good job of turning plants into stylised patterns for woodcuts on cloth, you know; he's more oriented in the decorative arts than representative. He draws designs for H'llon to carve too; for H'llon's a great woodworker and has a feel for free carving, but when it comes to designing the lids of decorative boxes he has the imagination of a brick."

Carlinna giggled.

"He does good plain stuff very well though" she said "And his tiny dragons to show formations are exquisite."

"Yes; he can copy anything, scale-perfect" said Geriana "Those dragons aren't just in proportion for their colour, each one is an individual dragon, in proper proportion for itself. He's just not great at making up patterns."

"I guess it takes all sorts" said Carlinna. "Oooh" as she realised they had reached the table where Agatta sat next to L'rilly.

The Queenrider gave both girls a friendly smile.

"Ah, Master Agatta – Geriana here is your mystery artist, and with her is Carlinna whose portrait of Camnath showed you how much talent she really has despite being mucked about with by her idiot family."

Carlinna opened her mouth to excuse her family and their extravagant and uncritical praise; and shut it again.

Agatta regarded her thoughtfully.

"Tell me about it?" she said when the girls were seated.

"My parents thought me talented – they meant well" said Carlinna defensively, flushing. "They never gave me anything but praise however; and by the time I was apprenticed I – I was convinced I was the best."

"Unfortunate for you" said Agatta gravely. "Could not your master break you of it?"

Carlinna flushed again.

"He tried….. I – I was too stroppy. After a couple of times trying to correct me and – and me getting in a strop, he shrugged and told me to suit yourself."

Agatta's finely chiselled eyebrows rose.

"A couple of times?"

"He tried for nearly a sevenday" said Carlinna.

"Only a sevenday before he gave up?" there was scorn in Master Agatta's tone "He sounds a singularly useless master if he could only manage to teach easy apprentices. He did not leave you to stew and see for yourself how others progressed and then try again?"

Carlinna shook her head.

"He was quite sarcastic at times…..he'd give a lesson and say things like 'I suppose the great artist girl knows that and won't be joining the rest of us' and so I was essentially excluded from some lessons for that."

Agatta frowned.

"He sounds – one hesitates to so criticise a master but he does sound singularly inept. What is his name?"

"Fomitty" said Carlinna.

"Ah" said Agatta. "He turns out adequate journeymen; and those who are prepared to learn more can become quite good. But he's not the best teacher on Pern, though he's a perfectly competent artist in his own right. Oh, not to Geriana's standard" she waved her hand at the Weyrartist "But competent. You've not missed much not taking on his techniques; you'll learn more by far from her."

This was another revelation to Carlinna; that her former master was not considered by Agatta to be as good as Geriana! And she was right too; for there was a liveliness to Geriana's work that Fomitty's always lacked.

Agatta turned to Geriana.

"I am right that you'll be training her?"

"Yes Master if you truly think me competent. I was hoping you'd get us both started; I never trained anyone before."

Agatta grinned.

"Well if I may enjoy painting dragons with you, I'll do my best. I rarely take apprentices; I don't feel myself a great teacher because I have to fight against impatience. But I said I'd work with the boy Sessel, and I'll work with you girls too. If you WANT to impart knowledge I should think you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly. You've a good blank canvas with her if she wants to unlearn."

"I do" said Carlinna.

There was no mistaking the sincerity in her voice.

"Then I'll help" said Agatta "And if I may I'd like to return in a turn or so with a few other masters to see if we confirm you, Geriana, as a master. I'd do so now, but I think you should have time to adjust as a journeyman first."

"Wh-why th-thank you!" it was Geriana's turn to flush and stutter!

"You have a rare talent that is all inborn; to nurture that in any way is a privilege" said Agatta "And no thanks are necessary."

oOoOo

The boy Sessel was a quiet, introverted boy, homesick for his seahold home. As he was also an orphan and none of the other residents of the Hold from which he came could find their way to foster a skinny and delicate child – one of them had put it ;who might as well have been a girl' – who was not as likely to survive to pay back their care by becoming a good fisherman, the lad had no place to go.

Sessel had come on Search purely because it was somewhere to go. Dragons were well enough; and if he Impresses he could go to the sea whenever he wanted once his dragon could go _Between_. But he was a lonely little boy, teased by many of his fellows for his preoccupation with trying to capture pictures of the sea in whatever medium he could improvise. Geriana had given him some paper and let him use up the pigments she mixed to paint colour on her visualisations; which being predominantly blues and green for scenery had pleased him well enough.

And now he was to be a proper apprentice to Geriana, his future assured whether he Impressed of not! And the need to draw would be nurtured and considered an asset, not sneered at! And he had even had some praise from the great Master too! There was not a happier boy in the Weyr at that moment than Sessel!

oOoOo

Neither Carlinna nor Sessel Impressed at the hatching; and though Carlinna was bitterly disappointed, Geriana's blunt reminder that it gave her more time to work on her art was somehow comforting. She had improved already out of all recognition, just by following Agatta's advice to learn to see rather than looking for what she knew was there.

Carlinna was starting to really enjoy her art rather than having to work furiously at it – and in fact the ability to admit that her childhood pleasure had become a chore was another thing that helped her move forward, and rediscover the joy in drawing!

It was true, however, that sometimes one must suffer for one's art.

Geriana was on friendly terms with all the female Green Riders, and a significant number of the male Green Riders too, notably those from the clutch that had Impressed the turn before; and wanted to immortalise their first mating flight for them in sketches.

Accordingly she found a spot atop the seven spindles to which Morvith, Dreth or Baynath would take her when the rising of one of her friends' dragons was imminent; and she took hasty sketches. Up there she could see for miles and in the clear air had a fairly good view of a lot of each flight.

Unfortunately, B'lan's Leviath was a bigger and stronger Green than most; and she and Brown Chereth went further than most Greens.

Geriana leaned outward to get a better view; went too far; and slid tumbling down the steep sides of the Weyr. Had she fallen towards the Bowl she would undoubtedly have been killed; falling outside she was extremely fortunate to fetch up before long on a ledge with no broken bones and nothing but some nasty contusion and a very bad gash all the way down her left arm.

Geriana had sworn pungently, nipping the lips of the wound to minimise the bleeding and put a tourniquet on it with her handkerchief which she also used to smudge charcoal, bandaged the wound roughly with a strip torn from her tunic, and sent her firelizards to get ropes and some aid.

Back in the Bowl, B'kas had insisted on her seeing Calla, who put stitches into and dressed the gash properly and Geriana later swore that the tongue lashing the Weyrhealer gave her for being as heedless as any weyrling hurt more than the wound.

She could not, however, go _Between_ until it healed; and that took several sevendays. Geriana got on with colour work as well as devoting herself to her apprentices; it was a good opportunity to catch up on those little jobs she had been putting off, after all!

oOoOo

Geriana was no innocent; and she recognised straight away why her monthly bleeding had stopped, without her frequent trips _Between_!

She assembled her boys.

"One of you's probably a father" she said bluntly. "Does it bother you?"

S'net and S'negen stared: then grinned.

"We act as one – does it bother you who it might be?" asked S'net.

"Not one whit" said Geriana. "B'kas, how are you about it?"

"Well I can't have their babies" said B'kas "but if you will, I'd love to be an extra mother to him or her."

"Whether you raise baby yourself or foster, we stand by you" said S'negen.

Geriana grinned.

She loved her boys so much!

"I thought we might call a boy Kassen" she said "for all of you; or a girl Gesenka for all of us."

"They sound really nice" said S'negen. "It's hard to fit part of you into a boy without sounding like he's Benden bred: and sweet of you to have all of us in his name." He gave her a fond look; it would be easy for B'kas to feel left out of this! But by putting his name into a potential baby, it drew him in too, and S'negen loved Geriana the more for her tender love for gentle B'kas!

S'net and S'negen were both walking around looking, as Carlinna laughingly told them, as if they had just Impressed again; and B'kas looked as proud as if he was egg-heavy! This strange little love group worked because of their closeness and total disregard for convention; and though B'kas could not have babies himself for the brothers who were both his and Geriana's lovers it was the next best thing to share his beloved Geri's child!

Carlinna had despised the love group at first; but now she was closer to Geriana she could see how very much they all loved each other, and she came to respect the tenderness between them!

oOoOo

With more time on her hands for considering things, Geriana invited Carlinna to join her and her weyrmates to discuss a matter concerning artists.

"You recall we went to the new Hold in Crom?" said Geriana.

"Only too well" shuddered B'kas "Aesthetic horror!"

"I've been thinking about young Boral" said Geri "You know: Niran's apprentice."

"She catches the pregnant fix-it thing from T'lana" joked S'negen.

Geri threw one of her brushes at him and went on,

"We know that Niran gets rid of apprentices if they look like they're going to get better than him, rather than give them release papers" she said firmly, reminding them of the artist notorious for his trick-laden decorative rather than competent style. "And we also know that he beats on the kid. Right?"

"So Journeyman Kellahan said; and we've no reason to doubt his word" said B'kas.

"So why don't you boys collect Boral on pretext of Search and he can train here?" said Geri. "Like T'arla's cousin Meeri is at the Harperweyr in the same way. And if Boral never Impresses still an asset to the Weyr."

"I like" said S'net.

"He's underage" said S'negen.

Geriana cast up her eyes.

"Get him alone and ask him if he'd like a less violent apprenticeship; and if he says yes, tell him to lie about his age!" she said, patiently.

"Yes Weyrartist!" S'negen jumped to attention.

"Fool" said Geri, fondly.

"I should think we can track him down well enough" said B'kas "We'll visit Lady Varilka first and tell her of our happy pending event to explain why you've not come; I'm sure SHE'LL know."

"I wouldn't bet marks against that possibility" said Geri "Give her my best!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Lady Varilka was glad to see Geriana's boys and was delighted with their news. As she said, one only had to look at her to see that she too was in the same interesting condition herself; and the boys congratulated her and promised to tell Geriana.

So far as the lady Holder knew, Niran had been heading for Crom's Minercraft Hall to paint Masterminer Nicat.

"Nicat? He doesn't know good art from bad!" said S'negen with more accuracy than tact.

"If he's employing Niran that's just as well!" said his brother dryly.

"I'll keep my tongue behind my teeth before I say anything I might regret" grinned B'kas, winking at Lady Varilka. She laughed.

"Well, I'm sure that the Masterminer will be happy enough" she said "And as Niran is incapable of dealing with the ingraining of years of dust it will be a kinder portrait than Rhaghe would have produced had he lived – he could exaggerate features just a little if he wasn't kept up to scratch to paint more of the personality as he saw it then was visible. I had to watch him like a wherry-kite not to let him turn my poor Eveny into a bit of a stuffed fish. He's not nearly as pompous as he tends to come across as to strangers."

S'negen opened his mouth and S'net stood hard on his foot.

S'negen sometimes had too clever a tongue for diplomacy for all that he could be diplomatic in the extreme when he was putting his mind to it.

oOoOo

Outside the Hold, S'negen said, aggrieved,

"I was only going to say that I was glad!"

"Well brother mine, I had fears of you saying 'he'd almost have to be' or even worse" said S'net.

S'negen grinned.

"I only thought it" he confessed.

oOoOo

The boy patiently grinding pigments on a rock outside the great Minehold had to be Boral, and his face was badly enough bruised from old and new bruises to carry quite a few colours of its own.

B'kas went and squatted down beside him; and the boy looked fearfully up at the dragonman.

"Your master appears to be rather too handy with his fists" said B'kas gently.

"I was slow, Green Rider" said Boral.

"The comment still stands" said B'kas. "Laddie, if a dragonman should happen to ask you your age, and you said 'old enough' he might well take that as old enough to go on Search."

"But I don't want to fly a dragon, sir, I want to paint!" said Boral with devastating honesty.

"Oh the laws of nature don't make the two mutually exclusive…. I'm an artist myself, a colourman mostly. And we've a fine Weyrartist who never hits her apprentices; and she's a better artist by far than Niran for Master Artist Agatta has praised her work."

The boy brightened.

"Truly?" he asked.

"Yes indeed. Now if you'd like a better apprenticeship, you let us steal you on Search, hmmm?"

Boral nodded.

"Do I come now?" he asked.

"No, laddie; we'll come in and wander about a bit, for the look of it; we might even take others genuinely on Search; the three of us have a good feel for it. Leave it to us" B'kas winked and tapped the side of his nose.

Boral nodded breathlessly!

How KIND the dragonman was!

oOoOo

Masterminer Nicat was always glad to see logicators of any kind even when they were bent on stealing his best an brightest apprentices, as he teased them!

"Why Master Nicat" said S'negen "It's why we steal the brightest and the best – because we know you'll continue to support their interest in their Craft to the convenience of the Weyr and the good, we hope, of the Craft too! B'lan and D'nor have been very helpful to us, a real asset."

Nicat beamed.

He had sent the young men, Journeyman and apprentice, because their sexual liaison had been likely to cause them problems in the Crafthall. That they had Impressed was an honour upon the Craft as well as peace of mind for their future wellbeing!

"Well, well, well, look around and take anyone you feel appropriate!" he boomed cheerfully.

The dragonmen proceeded to dine with the miners and looked over the youngest apprentices. They studiously avoided the girl who tried to flirt with each of them.

A couple of the boys were suitable; one agreed to come, the other declined: and that too was his Right, and to be respected.

S'negen looked at Boral, standing behind Niran's chair, serving him rather than eating for himself as though he were a drudge. And at least the drudges, working in the kitchen, often got a bite to eat first.

S'negen strolled over.

"Laddie, how old are you?" he asked casually.

"Old enough, sir!" said Boral with scarcely concealed excitement.

"What's happened to your face?" asked S'negen "Looks as if you were kicked by an ass."

Niran went purple.

"Boral, go to the room, you're not to talk to the dragonmen, you're too young" he said.

"The boy says he's old enough" said S'negen quietly, dangerously "And also I think I have some say to whom I choose to speak. Search always takes precedence. Why, surely it cannot be, artist, that you are the ass that kicked him?"

Niran scowled.

"I chastised him for bad behaviour! As any Master is entitled to do!" he said "It's none of your sharding business!"

"Laddie, would you like to be a candidate?" asked S'negen.

"Yes sir!" said Boral, promptly.

"Nonsense, boy!" Niran casually backhanded him.

"I think I've enough witnesses to see that this person hit a candidate" said S'negen.

His fist travelled a short, scientific trajectory into Niran's face, knocking him clean out of his chair and into temporary oblivion.

"Nice blow, dragonman; I've been wanting to do that myself for a long time" said a lean Journeyman Minecrafter.

S'negen grinned at him.

"Of course, I could only do so because he assaulted a weyrling under my protection" he said "I hope that's understood."

The Journeyman grinned.

"Understood and approved!" he said.

oOoOo

Boral was soon installed in the Weyr, sharing a cave with fellow apprentice Sessel, covered in numbweed and amazed at how much he was allowed to draw and paint for himself rather than being little more than a glorified drudge!

oOoOo

With four artists and a colourman, Geriana made the announcement that the caves given over to their use was now the Weyratelier, as suggested by Carlinna.

"Weyr WHAT, Journeyman?" demanded Boral, who had quickly bounced back to being a normal and cheeky little boy once he found out that his new apprenticeship was free of the abuses of the previous one.

"Atelier" said Carlinna "It's a word artists uses for their studios when there are several members or apprentices attached to them. It's what my old Master Fomitty called his studio" she explained.

"Why is at a Weyratelier when the Harpers have a Harperweyr?" asked Sessel.

"Because it sounds better this way round" said Geriana "We could be the Atelierweyr, but Carlinna and I discussed it thought that that sounded clumsy and Weyratelier sounded more harmonious."

"Heh" said S'negen "They'll call it the Artistweyr you know for laziness over learning a new word."

"Not if we throw the word around enough for them to get used to it" said B'kas serenely. "And it'll give High Reaches better credibility with other artists to run an Atelier, a craft word after all, rather than just having an Artistweyr. We're the Weyrartists of the Weyratelier."

"Fardles, that sounds like a Harper tongue-twister!" laughed S'negen.

"Don't, I beg you, suggest that to T'rin" groaned S'net "He'd tinker to make up a true tongue-twister!"

"Seconded in that plea!" said Carlinna quickly.

"Oh indeed!" agreed B'kas.

The little boys giggled!"

oOoOo

The Weyrartists invited the rest of the Weyrfolk to an exhibition of art to open the Atelier. Perhaps with more enthusiasm than wisdom, Carlinna produced a banner saying 'Welcome to the Weyratelier'; and the artists had to spend the rest of the exhibition trying to break the visiting Riders and support staff of referring to it as an 'Attleer' as well as explaining what the word meant.

"Well at least it means the new name ought to be memorable" Carlinna made excuse when B'kas threatened to poke her for having to correct the pronunciation of the name as he said umpteen squared times.

Much of the work in the exhibition would be going to the craftstall for the nurture of the orphans and cripples that the Weur sponsored; Carlinna and Geriana had decided to paint scenes of the Weyr and surrounding countryside with dragons in it, on the principle that people who could afford luxuries like paintings might like to suggest a Weyr connection thus.

They planned to be on a rota at the Gathers to draw graphite or charcoal sketch portraits to order at a mark a time; and expected to do very well with that.

H'llon pointed to one of the pictures, a small colour sketch by Carlinna of meadows and the weyr visible in the background.

"That'd mount nicely as the lid of a box, you know" he suggested. "And if you could paint directly onto wood with those oil colours, or onto the primed surface on the wood, I guess, decorative chests might sell where pictures might not, for people being able to claim them as useful items too."

"That's a thought" said Geriana "And panelled screens too; a lot of Hold caverns are pretty draughty and screens a necessity."

T'bor came over.

"Geriana, I really like that print" he pointed "The one of Northfork with the Runnerbeasts. If you did a selection of prints of major minor Holds – if you see what I mean – would people buy sets, do you think, bound in a book, to see where other people live, a kind of vicarious travelling?"

"Mmm" said Geriana "That's another good thought, Weyrleader. And I wager it would sell even better with a little bit of information about each – you know of the kind 'this is High Reaches Hold, seat of Lord Bargen and first conquest of the notorious Fax. The Hold is home to eleven thousand souls plus outlying cotholds to almost as many and has an extensive Weavercraft Hall and is known for its Runner racing and Winter Games at Gathers' just off the top of my head."

"Excellent!" approved T'bor "And such information of use to traders too."

"Plus a bit of biographical detail about Bargen himself and his family" put in Pilgra "Because people like to find out about how the other half live, marvel at their exploits, fecundity or whatever."

"Cynic" said T'bor.

"I doubt a marksman has ever lost money by underestimating the idle curiosity or poor taste of his clients" said Pilgra.

"It's a big project" said Geriana "We'll need metal and a load of etching acid from the Smithcrafters to produce good prints; it'll be easier than tying up the woodcrafters carving woodblocks."

"I've done some etching with Fomitty" said Carlinna "I actually listened because it was something so new."

"And that's why you'll be teaching me" said Geriana. "I know it can be done; and I've a vague idea how to do it, but I've never done it."

"It isn't hard, with the right tools" shrugged Carlinna "At least, not the basic skill; the hardest part is doing the design backwards. You'll soon pick it up."

"Sorted" said Geriana "That won't be on the stall for at least a Turn though."

"We Harpers could do our bit in researching and writing the stuff to go opposite the pictures" said T'rin.

"Don't get too clever" warned Pilgra "People might not like it!"

T'rin grinned.

Once the idea of immortalising Holds in picture and biography got about, those researching them would be welcome which would become a way for a Harper who was a logicator to poke about and check that all was well; and report back to the Masterharper as well as to T'lana. And who knew what little bits of evidence might be sketched by visiting artists too. It was an excellent cover for HIS work as well as a good potential earner for the orphan fund!

Y'lara too came up with another good idea of a saleable item.

"Seamen often carve scrimshaw items, Geri: the bones of big fish carve really well. But big bones from things like Grizzlies can have large flat plates cut from them and be made into boxes with silver to joint the edges. You could paint a scene on the lid of that as well as on wood or use poker work on either for a more subtle and hard wearing scene. You could also make oval boxes, little ones for herbs and spices, or even trinkets,,using the cross section of a big bone with a bottom glued in and a hinged lid. Reckon such little boxes would delight young girls and women."

Bone took paint very well; and with a scene of the Weyr and dragons on the lid and local flowers or flying dragons around the boxes they would be charming little trinket boxes and the artists hoped to persuade people to buy such as a little reminder of a day at the Gather! Scenes of racing too might not come amiss, and Geriana wondered about taking some plain trinket boxes to paint a winner on, so that those who had bet might want that as a memento!

oOoOo

Boral was a better technical artist than Sessel at this time; but as Geriana said, each had much to learn from the other. Sessel had been forbidden to draw at his own home, wasting resources as his seabred family had put it; and Geriana had every sympathy with that, having been allowed to draw only through her mother's good graces! Sessel's efforts were quite raw but showed powerful images of the boy's love of the sea; and he had been promised frequent trips to draw from life, with Geriana's three Dragonriding lovers at the Atelier's disposal! Neither little boy was as yet competent enough to produce work for sale, but they were proud to be allowed to mix colours and fetch and carry for their Journeyman and senior apprentice who WERE good enough!


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The first day of Lord Bargen's Turnover Gather promised to be fair; it was clear and cold in the predawn when the crafters left, the stars like chips of diamond in a velvet black sky, and looking close enough to reach out and pick out of the sky. The Weyr were also entering a curling team this turn, partly because of rash teasing comments by Tragen's people concerning M'gol's fitness; and partly because M'gol had extolled the joys of the game and had got several others interested.

oOoOo

The Weyr craftstall was quickly erected, and several obliging dragons acted as windbreaks, the warmth of their big soft bodies welcome to the stallholders as they waited for a rise in temperature with the rising of the sun! Geriana was particularly cold; S'negen had flown her Straight to protect the baby, to make sure she might still attend, or as her boys said laughingly to permit her to interfere!

Soon she was directing Riders and apprentices alike in setting up a booth in which to sketch portraits, out of the wind.

She had stepped back to view the booth when she came face to face with someone she had never expected to see again; her father, Holder Gerit!

He stared in shock as great as her own.

"Geriana!" he recovered his voice and spoke in a furious tone. "What nonsense are you up to? DRAWING to earn a mark or two? What have you fallen to? It's almost as bad as being a loving-wench! Now pack up this rubbish and you can come home with me, I don't despair of finding some idiot to wed you!"

"Holder Gerit, you cannot speak that way to an accredited Journeyman" said Geriana, swallowing her raw fear. "You said if I persisted with my craft you would disown me; I did thus persist to my own credit. So you are no kin of mine. Leave me alone."

"Phaugh!" he backhanded her and threw her easel and paints to the ground. Carlinna cried out and ran to her friend, starting to draw her knife.

"Journeyman, is this man troubling you?" asked S'negen stepping over. His expression was dangerous.

"Yes he is, Blue Rider" said Geriana "And he has damaged Weyr property – those paints are broken and they are valuable property."

"We will lay the matter before Lord Bargen then" said S'negen "As well as the offence of striking a weyrwoman"

"What? That's no Weyrwoman, it's only my daughter!" sneered Gerit.

"The Weyrartist is a weyrwoman – without the emphatic capital of a Gold Rider – and a valuable member of the Weyr" said S'negen. "The Weyrleader would be extremely displeased if he had to be told about this. You may offer reparations now or the matter WILL go to Lord Bargen."

Gerit went purple.

"I'll pay no reparations for chastising my own daughter!"

"You WILL pay reparations for striking a Journeyman weyrwoman" countered S'negen "Here and now or as ordered by Lord Bargen. The choice is yours."

"What is the trouble here?"

H'llon had come over. He towered over Gerit.

"This Holder struck the Weyrartist and broke valuable pigments" said Snegen "He refuses reparations on grounds that he sired the Weyrartist before disowning her."

"He has no right to hit Weyr personnel regardless of any familial connection disowned or intact" said H'llon. "I saw the blow; it was a mean one, but I was too far away to readily come and hit him back. You were restrained, S'negen."

"I'm not though" said S'net, also hurrying up, his fist balled.

"If you hit him, brother, vengeance is taken and we can't hit him where it really hurts – in the marks chest" said S'negen.

B'kas, with S'net, gave a crack of laughter.

"You canny old tunnel-snake, love!"

S'negen looked smug; and Gerit looked nauseated as B'kas tucked an arm into each of his lovers' arms. That this was also a restraint on S'net was not obvious.

"Well, Holder, will you let a Bronze Rider set reparations or will I take you before the Lord Holder?" rumbled H'llon, ominously.

"I – I demand to see Lord Bargen!" cried Gerit.

"Fine" said H'llon, 'helping' him along by seizing his collar. "What value was the damage, Weyrartist?"

Geri looked over the broken bottles of mixed colour that the apprentices had mixed to embellish plain boxes to order.

"About twenty five marks of spoiled pigment; most of that is in this blue" she said.

"Preposterous! Impossible! She lies – just for colours to daub with?" Gerit sneered.

H'llon shook him.

"DO NOT COMPOUND YOUR CRIMES IN SLANDERING A JOURNEYMAN BY CALLING HER HONESTY INTO DISREPUTE!" he roared. "Dyes are expensive; I use similar colours to stain woods and I can assure you that the Weyrartist who does NOT daub is telling the absolute truth" he added coldly "Come on you" and he set off for the Lord Holder's halls holding Gerit just high enough to force him to run on tiptoes. It did not improve the Holder's mood.

But then it was never supposed to do so.

Lord Bargen took a dim view of anyone striking weyrfolk and then refusing to apologise or make reparation.

He gave Gerit a verbal excoriation for his temerity to so treat weyrfolk and interfere in Weyr autonomy.

"They STOLE her from me!" said Gerit "Encouraged her to run away!"

"Untrue" rumbled H'llon "I know hearsay only, Lord Bargen; but I trust the word of the person who told me, Queenrider T'lana; may I lay out the facts?"

"He's lying!" screamed Gerit.

"He hasn't said anything yet save that he trusts the word of a Queenrider and I doubt that's going to be a lie" said Bargen coldly "Even if it were not the height of enough not to trust the word of any Bronze Rider – as I do. Especially this one. Please proceed, H'llon."

H'llon nodded.

"Holder Gerit asked T'lana to search for his daughter who had disappeared. He wanted her available to marry Lord Aven" he said, with a dangerous look at the Holder.

"THAT says little for his judgement or his care for his offspring's wellbeing" said Bargen. Gerit flushed but dared not criticise his Lord!

H'llon went on,

"T'lana pointed out tat without somewhere to go, Geriana was unlikely to survive bitter winter. As it happened, from examination of the girl's room she had deduced where the girl had fled. The Queenrider subsequently visited this haven and found Geriana unwilling to return to her father. Being over the age of choice, she saw no need to force the girl, especially as none of the weyrfolk thought much of someone who'd marry their little lass to a porcine to Aven" he paused to draw breath and scowl at Gerit "And subsequently, because of her skill as an artist, the Weyr employed her to draw visualisations for going _Between_ and reduced weyrling accidents by a significant statistical margin. She was finally asked if she would become Weyrartist full time and she accepted. A master was aked to assess her work and granted her journeyman status on the basis of her excellence. Injury has been done to a Journeyman in front of her apprentices as well as the offence to a weyrwoman, and the damage to weyr property, to whit, pigments with which she intended to paint for the Weyr Childhold fund. The Journeyman is also with child and such a blow might be prejudicial to the wellbeing of her baby."

Gerit's eyes bulged.

"She's damaged goods? I don't want her back then!" he cried.

"The choice scarcely rests with you Gerit" said Bargen icily.

H'llon's eyes narrowed.

"Are you TRYING to make me duel you, you nasty little man?" he asked "How DARE you speak about our Weyrartist in that way! In absence of her weyrmates I will stand in their place since the brothers are members of my flight!"

The insult is duly noted, Bronze Rider, and will add to the fine" said Bargen quietly and hastily. "The cost of the damaged goods?"

"Twenty five marks" said H'llon "And the broken hearts of the little boys who lovingly prepared it of course."

"Ah indeed; the cost of the goods is of course the minimal part of this offence. For striking a weyrwoman Journeyman the fine is four hundred marks. For doing so in front of her apprentices, fifty marks. For the insult just now, twenty five marks. A round five hundred marks for that; plus an hundred marks for risking the unborn child of a dragonman and future candidate. Six hundred marks, Gerit."

"You should have let me judge a blood price after all, shouldn't you?" murmured H'llon, as the man looked scandalised.

"But…..but….." Gerit did not know what to say.

"And cheap at the price!" snapped Bargen "If the Weyrartist miscarries, I'll have the bloodprice of a child on top, another five hundred marks! I will pay the Weyr now; and YOU will pay me."

"It'll take him a while to get home to fetch it" rumbled H'llon "I'm also withdrawing his Rider."

"As is your right, Flight Leader" said Lord Bargen, emphasising H'llon's rank to drive the message home to Gerit. "It'll be a cold walk home Gerit. Maybe you should have thought of that when you started hitting out at pregnant women – however much related to you they may be!"

Gerit seethed; but there was not a lot he could say!

"And now" said H'llon "We will deal with the little matter of your insults to me by calling me a liar to my face."

"Will you accept a ruling, Bronze Rider, rather than your right of duel or returning him to the Weyr for trial?" asked Bargen "I know it is Weyr business, and I would not wish to intrude upon your autonomy, but…."

H'llon gazed thoughtfully at Gerit, fingering his wicked-looking woodsman's knife, his eyes very narrow. Finally he said,

"Thank you, Lord Bargen. Weyr and Hold and Craft should all endeavour to work together for common justice. I will accept your ruling with gratitude."

Bargen breathed a sigh of relief. H'llon's sense of fair play and justice could be relied on, but when a man's honour was so impugned, even the big woodcrafter might demand to prove the insult on the body of the insulter!

"For the imputations against the word of a Bronze Rider and Senior Crafter I set the price at a further three hundred marks" said Bargen with a voice that came from _Between_. "And the fines I have set only so low because I do not want the majority of your people to suffer; as I am sure the Bronze Rider would concur!"

"I do" said H'llon "And if he tries to extract the marks from them by oppression….."

"I SHALL be watching him" said Bargen watching Gerit narrowly. "One of my men will see him back to his home; and will report to me weekly by firelizard."

"Autonomy in my own Hold!" cried Gerit.

"Does NOT include acts contrary to natural justice and the Charter" snapped Bargen "I've been through this once with my father fooled by Fax over the so-called autonomy business; I am not so easily bamboozled! Now get out!"

Gerit got!

oOoOo

Meanwhile Geriana was enfolded in the warm embrace of her boys.

"I still wish you had let me hit him" grumbled S'net.

"We need to hold the Moral High Ground" declared S'negen a trifle sententiously "For the Weyr's sake."

"How is our baby?" asked B'kas.

S'net went white and swayed.

"If he's hurt our baby I AM going to kill him" he growled.

"If he has, we'll do it together" said S'negen "But babies are tough; I recall T'lana saying so, and I also asked Calla before I even dreamed of bringing Geri here. It takes a lot to dislodge a baby. If he'd hit her in the belly, now, you'd have been too slow to have killed him."

"So would you" said Geriana intensely.

oOoOo

When H'llon returned and told the lovers of Lord Bargen's verdict Geriana brightened.

The numbweed B'kas had gently smeared on her face helped too.

"Well I'll happily take a bruised face to earn THAT much for the childhold" she said.

S'net grunted.

"It's bad form though to have a weyrwoman looking like a badly-treated loving-wench. And that's NOT worth it!"

"Hush love! That's why B'kas is organising some expensive makeup to cover it; he knows who to borrow some from" said Geriana cheerfully. "It'll be fine. If it still shows, I'll smear paint over it and just look like the quintessential artist."

"You don't want me to take you home?" asked S'negen.

"And give him the victory? I don't think so!" said Geriana indignantly!

oOoOo

It was a day for faces from the past.

Carlinna was settling down to start her stint as artist on duty when who should walk into the booth but Master Fomitty! He had a couple of apprentices with him.

"Good morning Master Fomitty" Carlinna forced herself to smile politely.

"Carlinna? Ah my poor child, failed to Impress, I see" the tone was short of a sneer but only just.

"Oh I'm not planning to stand again for a little while" said Carlinna, forcing her voice to be light. "I got given the opportunity to learn more about art than I ever realised existed, so I'm taking time to study."

"Indeed?" Fomitty sounded disbelieving "And this enterprise is to succour unwanted and cripple brats I see…..well for kindness people MIGHT pay a mark for a likeness by you…..if they've a strong imagination."

His apprentices tittered dutifully.

Boral opened his mouth to comment but Sessel muttered

"Leave it to the Senior Apprentice; we'll get her into trouble if we talk back to a Master"

Boral scowled but nodded. He contented himself with making hideous faces at the apprentices.

Carlinna had clenched and unclenched her hands but forced a bright smile.

"Oh, but since I've had a competent teacher, I've progressed a lot, Master Fomitty" she said.

It took a second or two for that to sink in.

"Are you calling me – ME! – Incompetent?" Fomitty demanded.

"Well let us say I learned nothing from you and a great deal from both Master Agatta and Journeyman Geriana" said Carlinna.

"Nonsense!" Fomitty scoffed "Agatta would never accept you as a pupil!"

"You call me a liar? That's not a nice thing to do in front of others of the craft, Master Fomitty. Agatta visited the Weyr and all the Weyrartists under Journeyman Geriana profited from her words of wisdom and personal pointers to each of us; we were much privileged. In my opinion she is the greatest living artist on Pern."

"Your opinion scarcely counts, though, does it, apprentice?" said Fomitty scathingly.

"Perhaps not; but I am still entitled to hold it" said Carlinna. "Were you looking for work from the Weyr? I'm afraid they rather look down on portraits as a bit second class there, though useful to earn marks, and to identify people; the Dragonfolk pay best for clear visualisations drawn to any time of day or turn; there is no price large enough, in their view, to preserve the lives of weyrlings by giving them good visualisation."

"So how many weyrlings have you killed with your incompetent daubs?" he could not help sneering.

"I think you are very quick to judge and slander without having seen my recent work" said Carlinna coldly "Perhaps you should visit the craftstall and look at such of my work as is there before making a fool of yourself in front of YOUR apprentices blowing gas and ash without first chewing."

"How DARE you speak to your master that way!" a vein in his forehead throbbed. Sessel and Boral had firmly guffawed over his comment about killing weyrlings and were doing a good job of pretending to hide the fact that they were laughing at him.

"FORMER Master" said Carlinna. "There is no formal crafthall for artists; you have no autonomy over me. And no right to criticise what you have not seen."

"Huh, I've seen enough of your work" snorted Fomitty "I called in here hoping to meet the apprentice who did the delightful little bone boxes on the Weyr Craftstall."

Carlinna stood hard on Boral's foot as he started to speak; she had a surge of angry pleasure.

"Why not ask one of the Riders on the stall?" she said sweetly "They are well acquainted with all the artists of the Weyratelier, you know."

"Weyratelier? That's pretentious!" he snapped.

"Why? My Journeyman's a better artist than you any day, and Master Agatta agrees. She said you were a perfectly competent artist but not to Geriana's standard and the only reason she had not proposed Geriana as a Master is to give her time to get used to teaching."

"Ah well, females who treat art as a hobby will hang together" said Fomitty patronisingly "I will ask the weyrfolk about the artist of the boxes; so competent a lad might like to escape a heavily female atmosphere" and he withdrew.

Boral and Sessel cast themselves on the ground to roll around in mirth.

oOoOo

Carlinna gave it two minutes; and counted slowly.

She was not far off; she had almost reached one hundred and twenty in her count when she heard Fomitty's voice bellow

"WHAT? IT CAN'T BE!"

Someone had just told him that the boxes were her work.

It was very, very sweet.

Fomitty came nowhere near Carlinna after that; neither to apologise nor even to be rude to her for letting him make an ass of himself in front of apprentices.

Well she had warned him.

And that he would not even speak to her was by way of being yet more of a victory!


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Carlinna was still on duty when Lord Bargen came into the booth with a couple of soldiers.

"Ah, weyrartist apprentice… can you take some likenesses from description?" the Lord Holder asked, waving her down as she rose.

"I'm not as good as Geri, My Lord" said Carlinna honestly.

"Is she here still? Fardles take that thunderskulled and Threadwitted father of hers, is she losing the baby?" he asked, suddenly concerned.

Carlinna shook her head quickly.

"No My Lord; we take it in turns to be on duty here, and she needs the necessary a lot of course so her stints are short."

"Ah, quite" he nodded understanding. "When is she to return?"

"If it's important, Boral will run for her now" said Carlinna. Boral nodded eagerly.

"If you would lad…. If you would; my compliments to the Weyrartist and if she feels up to it I would like her services" said Bargen.

Boral shot off without further ado.

oOoOo

Geriana sat down and listened to a full description of a man seen by one of the guards standing over a body with a bloody knife in hand, emptying the pouch. He had run and the guard had been unable to catch him.

"Of course he might have pulled out the knife another man put in there and took the opportunity of theft; and then run because he was afraid of looking guilty of murder; or even to avoid being arrested for theft" mused Geriana.

"True enough; but he still needs to be questioned whether he is guilty of murder, of theft, or even of nothing but looking for anything to identify the dead man" said Bargen "But he IS a man known to be violent, and to have been rumoured to have killed before. My guard recognised him as a man pointed out to him as trouble."

"Well you are one of the most just men around" said Geriana "You are pulling a face at my drawing, soldier, nose not right?"

"Thinner, My Lady" said the soldier "And bent slightly to the - er – the bulge THAT side" he pointed.

Geriana nodded and amended the sketch.

"That's awfully close" said the soldier admiringly "But I think the eyes do be a bit far apart now the nose is thinner."

Geriana made the change patiently.

"Shards, you could almost hear the Threadbegotten shardhead curse!" said the soldier in admiration.

"LANGUAGE before ladies Sellen!" barked Bargen.

"Sorry Me Lord, sorry ladies" said the soldier, flushing.

"No problem" said Geriana "I've heard worse let loose in a longer burst from a Rider got out of his furs before dawn to fly Thread over Tillek in a gale."

"I wager" grinned Sellen.

"You want copies?" Geriana asked the Lord Holder quickly before he reprimanded the poor man again for familiarity.

"Can you manage that?" asked Bargen, diverted to the business in hand.

"If you don't mind me spoiling this one a bit" said Geriana "Boral, grind some chalk very finely."

"Yes, Weyrartist!" said Boral crisply.

Geriana took a heavy pin and judiciously pierced the picture at strategic points. By the time she had finished, Boral had ground down some chalk to a fine dust.

Geriana selected several dark leaves of paper of brownish cast; they made good portraits with shadows in charcoal and highlights in chalk for relatively little effort and were made with a mix of dark fibres from beneath the bark of birch trees and the outer covering of maize for strength of fibre. Geriana was taking an interest in paper making in order to experiment with getting perfect paper to work on. She pounced the chalk dust through the holes onto the sheet beneath it; and lifted the top sheet to reveal on the lower one an outline of chalk dots.

"Shadows or highlights?" she asked Carlinna.

"Oh you do the highlights; it takes more talent and skill" said Carlinna.

"Only on a good framework of shade" said Geriana, passing her the first framework of dots. Carlinna worked the shadows in from memory of the original while Geri prepared more; and was ready for the second by the time her Journeyman had finished the pile of copies and was ready to take the first to add highlights.

Sellen was much impressed and had to be restrained from leaning forward breathing heavily and blowing the chalk dots right off again! Bargen drew him back, not unkindly: he was delighted.

"What do I owe the Weyr?" he asked.

"We charge a mark a portrait" said Geriana "You have a score of copies plus the original that will be twenty one marks please."

"I'll make that twenty five for the added difficulty of the portrait being described" said Lord Bargen, paying up scrupulously.

oOoOo

"That was a nice commission" said Geriana when he left. "I wasn't going to add more for the difficulty as churning out copies was easier."

"Well they mostly appreciate our talents though" said Carlinna "Holderfolk I mean. That's saved a lot of trouble for Lord Bargen in finding this man. And means the logicators won't have to, probably!"

"Heh, it was a logicator job as much as an artist one really" said Geriana "Translating what that man Sellen said into what he meant and getting Ochre to get visualisation from his thoughts without him noticing."

Carlinna chuckled.

" THOUGHT you had it down fast!" she said "And there was I thinking it all your natural talent!"

Geriana laughed.

"Craft secret, hmmm – let's not let anyone who isn't a logicator know!"

oOoOo

Carlinna shared her meeting with Fomitty with Geriana, laughing over how his own pride and refusal to believe she might have changed had made him look a fool – which she had not discouraged.

Geriana looked angry.

"He suggested you had killed weyrlings? Why I never heard such a WICKED thing to say! The more so if he truly believed you incompetent, that you should be made to wonder if any accidents might be your fault!" she said.

"We don't have any weyrling deaths though; R'gar's way too strict!" said Carlinna.

"HE didn't know that. It's known – spoken of in whispers – that some weyrlings die from overflying their dragons, or fail to return from _Between_. And just because R'gar is so fardling strict doesn't mean it couldn't happen with a particularly dim or wherry-brained kid; some of these youngsters don't even have two thoughts to rub together that they could manage to leave _Between_ if they've got something more exciting on their minds than minding R'gar. It's why he terrifies the boys into the HABIT of obedience; it's easier to lighten than to tighten. That nasty old caprine tried to lay a terrible burden of guilt on you; and I am seriously minded to get some revenge. Commons do NOT so insult weyrfolk!"

"Oh…. Do we count?" asked Carlinna.

"To be sure we count" said Geriana "We are technically weyrwomen – without the capital – like Calla and Keerana are! Can you see Pilgra letting anyone insult either of them – or their staff? And she'd not take this lying down either!"

Carlinna was convinced.

In truth she had been rather upset by Fomitty's unkind comments – and in front of his own apprentices and the lads who were her own juniors too. She willingly gave a visualisation of Fomitty to Geriana through the Weyrartist's firelizards; and soon Geriana was producing a series of wicked little caricatures in which Fomitty featured as a caprine.

"I'll do them all" said the Weyrartist "So you can truthfully say you never drew any of them. And even if he disbelieves it, that means he has to admit that you'd be good enough to do them."

"I wish I was" said Carlinna "I love that one – with the door hiding his rear end as he peers round it and the expression on his face…." She chuckled a dirty little chuckle.

"Yes I liked it too" laughed Geri "Looks er, taken aback as you might say!"

They leaned on each other laughing helplessly; and sent Boral and Sessel to quietly lay the sketches all over the Gather ground to ensure a wide audience.

Several Holderfolk thought that there was a competition to spot the goat and they began listing all the pictures!

It caused a lot of discussion and hilarity; and a lot of pointing at Fomitty and laughing; and some disappointment when there was no prize being offered for listing the most!

Lord Bargen rectified this when he heard of it – and saw the pictures – and sent the youth who found all thirteen sketches the quickest to collect them up, and swapped them for a pregnant nanny!

Bargen had no time for Fomitty, whom he recognised immediately in the caricatures, and he knew Geriana's work when he saw it and was determined to own THAT collection!

To anyone who listed all thirteen – and a surprising number assumed that there must be twelve – he gave a chit to come and collect a kid in the spring. It was well worth it.

As for Fomitty, he left the Gather in a huff.

That several Dragonriders bleated as he passed did NOT improve his dignity!

"I do NOT appreciate these insults, Blue Rider!" he said to one Rider, who was, unluckily for him, T'rin; who later described him as having bleated the comment.

"The apprentice talked, you know" said T'rin conversationally "And we want you to know that we don't appreciate commons insulting one of our weyrwomen, however junior. Just a gentle reminder rather than taking recourse to … sterner measures. Word to the wise, laddie; just live down your wicked slanders accusing a youth of causing deaths; and our little payback."

Fomitty had little choice but to try to do just that!

And he was still puzzling how Carlinna had firstly improved her techniques so much and secondly made herself popular enough that all the Riders would hang together to punish an insult!

The High Reaches Riders would have done exactly the same thing had they disliked Carlinna; because she was still weyrfolk. Indeed some of the bleaters could not have put a face to her name but it was the principle of the matter!

oOoOo

The first Gather day was long and busy; and many people rested during the early evening because there was to be a Turnover Feast as the Turn changed at midnight. The weyrartists were no exception; Geriana firmly sending the little boys to bed to sleep for a few hours promising faithfully to wake them.

oOoOo

It was worth waiting for. The rich brown smell of Hog Roast drifted through the mass of quietly assembled people as the midnight hour approached; and Samwil the Harper watched the passage of the lesser moon most carefully, counting to himself with reference to the star charts Master Wansor had provided. The first loud BONG! Of the Hold drum caught the attention; then sounded at second intervals whilst those assembled counted down: 'Ten….nine…..eight…..' until finally with the loudest drum beat booming the voices raised to shout 'ZERO!'

There was a whizz, a screech and a bang; coloured stars fell!

The minecrafters had set up startubes to entertain the people, filled with iron filings and copper filings to burn orange or green and more esoteric chemicals for other effects to entertain the Gather goers. Some women shrieked in fear; others in excitement, and there were cries of awe and wonder at the spectacle.

Geriana absorbed; and Carlinna knew that on the morrow a new painting would be started!

Then it was all over; and people were calling out 'Happy New Turn!' on their way to fill plates with succulent hog meat, sausages of all kinds and tubers backed in the embers of the great roasting fire!

Carlinna grinned to watch the two younger apprentices' excitement, and wished that she had quite as much resilience not to care that one had to balance being too hot on one side near a fire or brazier, and too cold on the other side from the sub-zero air temperature! Hot roast hog in cheese bread did however go a LONG way to alleviating discomfort! And, Carlinna reminded herself, she was much better dressed than many, and used to being so. The child of well off parents, she had never wanted; and the Weyr made sure that all its people were adequately clad for the weather; nobody went out without stout wherhide boots lined with wherry down. And the Weyrweaver may not have wanted to take apprentices, but he wove beautifully soft caprine and llama wool for long underwear!

oOoOo

The Gather re-started a little desultorily the next day; many people slept in! the Curling playoffs were not to start until mid morning; and the unkind said that it was to allow the hangovers of the curlers to subside enough to decide which of three blurred stones to take hold of…

The Weyr curling team had no hangovers – or had harder heads, one sage observer nodded wisely, seeing Harper knots on two of the team, T'rin and T'arla. M'gol had trained his team well; and they won match after match!

There were a few mutters that dragons made them unbeatable and it wasn't fair; Geriana heard Tragen scotch THAT rumour.

"They're good at aiming of course; they practise aiming in a general way by aiming at thread" he said "And I for one am glad that they do. But they're not as good as my team."

When the Weyr was knocked out by a neat curving shot by Northfork's captain Kirissa, one wag shouted,

"You riding your runner beasts against Thread, then, Tragen?"

Tragen laughed.

"Oh, Runnerholds produce good dragonriders you know; Ruatha's said to produce the best Weyrwomen, but I say it's only because they also produce some of the best runnerbeasts!"

There was good natured laughter.

Everyone knew that Tragen's wife had a brother who was a Bronze Rider; and rumour said a sister who was a Green Rider! Northfork had a good relationship with the Weyr and there was plainly a friendliness about the intense rivalry of the game!

Northfork went on to win the final too; despite, as M'gol said, not having that Marthengol fellow on the team this turn!

oOoOo

Neither Northfork nor the Weyr fielded an Ice Hurley team; Tragen considered the risk to his jockeys to be too high and T'lana had asked what was the fun in a game that appeared to be armed violence with the intent of murdering a stone by pitching it from one end of a frozen lake to another whilst passing it through as many of the opposing team as possible?

Hurley and ice hurley had their following in the Weyr; and informal games were played but T'bor forbade serious matches outside the Weyr.

It was as much for the protection of non-riders as for the good of his own people; dragonriders were generally better fed and fitter than the majority of the populace and trained to a level of strength matched only by Minercrafters and a few smiths. It would be too easy to accidentally break bones of opponents, leading to recriminations and resentment as would not occur so readily even if bones were broken in matches between Holds.

Hurley was therefore a game followed by and bet on eagerly by dragonriders, many of them knowledgeable enough about it from playing for fun; but without the personal interest they took in their own curling team.

Sessel and Boral joined the fun; except they bet only with each other from massive imaginary stakes neither owned; Geriana heard a bet of seven hundred thousand smithcraft marks laid against four hundred clutches of firelizard eggs; and chuckled at their simple amusement and good imaginations!

There were broken bones in the ice hurley of course; it was inevitable. One man was carried off unconscious with a cut over his eye; one had a broken nose; another a stove in rib, and the numerous fractures to arms and legs scarcely counted. It was said to have been a good series; no-one died.

Geriana thought T'bor's injunction very wise!


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The child who was drawing pictures of scenery and flowers on the swept flags at the edge of the Gather Ground was really good; Boral, given time off to wander and look about saw him first. Boral thought the lad to be a turn or two older than his own age; and went over to take a look. Charcoal, chalk, a broken piece of orange brick and a couple of lumps of ground colour in some kind of resin matrix coloured lively drawings.

"You're awfully good" said Boral "Who's your master?"

The other shot him a quick look, taking in the knots.

"Don't have a master. I taught myself" he said.

Boral grinned.

"Like my master – well she's a Journeyman now, she got given papers by a master. Her name's Geriana, and she taught herself well enough to be proclaimed Journeyman just like that. She's really, really good."

"Oh?" the monosyllable was studiously nonchalant.

"We're building up our atelier you know" said Boral.

"What's one of them – your At – what you said?" the question was not quite belligerent.

"It's an artist craft word for a place artists work together" said Boral "If you don't have a master, reckon you might like to work under Geriana."

"What, give up drawing to be a glorified drudge?" the youth scoffed.

"Well If you've heard that of Geriana it's a lie" said Boral. "And as you're older'n me and better reckon you'd get to do even more; I'm eleven and I get to draw and paint lots, with chalk, graphite, charcoal, watercolour, oils and we're going to start etching soon. I mean, sure I have chores and I have to grind colours, but you learn lots doing that, you know. And we do have our own colourman too who prepares most of the pigments."

The eyes that looked at him were hungry.

"Reckon she'd take me then? I can't pay for an apprenticeship."

"Reckon so" said Boral, running his eye over the work. "She's more interested in talent than taking apprentices for pay; you got the idea of perspective on your own – she'd be keen to train someone that good. She ain't like some master's you know, that don't like apprentices to look better than them once they've learned stuff. It's one reason I come to her; my old master used to beat me something awful; and I was like a drudge to him – maybe it was him you'd heard of to think you'd drudge for Geriana! Cuh, it wasn't half a revelation to learn – really learn – from her!" his eyes glowed.

"She want to see my stuff, y'think?" asked the youth.

"Oh probably; though she'd take my word you know. But I'd like her to see it if you'll wait a while, while I ask her to come."

"All right; but you better step smartish" said the other child, glancing at the sky where big black clouds loomed "Looks like it's going to rain, snow or hail."

Boral followed the look.

"Back soon!" he called, running for the Weyr stall.

oOoOo

Geriana had the chance of a quick glance at the child's work before hailstones the size of weesweet eggs started raining down. She grabbed a child by each hand and hustled them under cover.

The cover just happened to be a blue dragon.

"_I do NOT like hail"_ Dreth complained, broadcasting the thought to the three.

"Your hide is thicker than ours, Dreth love" said Geriana cheerfully.

"_We appear to have a new artist"_ Dreth commented "_They were good visualisations before they were hailed on."_

"Yes indeed; at least if she'll join us" said Geriana cheerfully "You are a girl aren't you my dear?"

The girl gasped.

"Yes I am" she said "Well, you're a woman – it doesn't make a worse artist."

"No, not at all. And wise to protect yourself with dressing as a boy" said Geriana. "No telling what some men may try to do if they think you've no protector….. with my hair cut short I occasionally get taken for a young man myself; generally by visiting Blue Riders who think I'm a Green Rider because dragons talk to me. Sometimes it's amusing; sometimes embarrassing; sometimes it's just the way things are. Depending on personalities. Dreth is the dragon of one of my lovers; if you are joining us you might as well get to know that I weyr with two Blue Riders and a Green Rider and B'kas is our colourman too."

"You – you're dragonfolk?" the girl asked "I suppose I should have guessed with you heading for a dragon, but, well, dragons protect….."

"_I like this one"_ said Dreth _"She understands. Dragons DO protect. Hail is less bad than Thread"_ he added thoughtfully.

"Didn't Boral fill you in?" asked Geriana "He didn't tell me your name either" she added cheerfully "And I LIKE your attitude to dragons."

"He hadn't asked my name. It's Vellara; I call myself Vell a lot of the time to go with being a boy" said Vellara.

Dreth rumbled deep in his throat.

"_And might well end up as V'lara"_ added Dreth.

"That's interesting" said Geriana "How old are you Vellara?"

"Almost Turned thirteen, Journeyman" said Vellara.

"Well if I were you I'd wait a while before standing as a candidate. Dragons don't appear to trouble you" Geriana added dryly, for Vellara had sat down on Dreth's hind foot.

Vellara giggled.

"Not so much as hail does, anyway" she said.

"Pull up your feet and put on him too – those shoes of yours are worn through and your feet are blue inside where I can see in the cracks. We'll have several pairs of socks onto you to get you through the rest of the Gather; I don't know how good the Hold corviser might be."

"He gotta be good, it's a Major Hold" said Boral "If S'net or S'negen or B'kas took her, he'd do quick work for dragonfolk too."

Geriana thought.

"I hate to have other folk's work slowed but she NEEDS boots" she said. "Good thought Boral. Vell, I've asked Dreth to bespeak S'net and explain everything; he does dour demanding dragonrider very well."

"Strong and silent is the phrase you want" said S'net coming round from the other side of Dreth. "Filthy weather; Tragen's well scorched, the first race is cancelled, too much chance of bruising hooves on the hailstones. And he's thinking of withdrawing from the rest if it doesn't thaw quickly."

"Huh, no need for that" said Geri "Tell Bargen's Race Steward that the dragons will flame the track for better going if he'll provide the firestone. It'll slush, and then refreeze for hard going."

"HAH! Pass that on to Baynath; my brother talks a better line of patter than I do" said S'net "C'mon shortstuff; it's eased up and we need you in decent boots as soon as possible."

"But – please, sir, I've not been accepted properly as an apprentice; I've not tried out….." said Vellara.

"Your work with makeshift materials is more than adequate for me to accept you" said Geriana. "Go with S'net; he'll also see you clothed more decently too. And when we've more time I'm intrigued as to how you made your colour sticks."

oOoOo

Vellara was soon outfitted in long woollen underwear and thick, warm trews, shirt and tunic with a quilted jacket and heavy cloak while her boots were being made up by a competent-looking Tannercraft Journeyman who was deeply respectful towards a Dragonrider and his protégé. Fortunately Vellara was not privy to the speculative conversation of the tannercrafters that the Rider hoped to invite the 'lad' into his furs!

oOoOo

Vellara blessed her luck in having fallen in with the Weyrartists!

There was another female apprentice, a cheerful and effervescent girl called Carlinna – for Carlinna's joy in art now she could progress with the help of her new friend had changed her entirely from the sullen girl who had first come to the Weyr!

Vellara could see that Carlinna was a senior apprentice by her tassels, but the two little boys seemed to treat her cheerfully like and older sister, and they acted similarly enough to the Journeyman, whilst plainly respecting her and doing her bidding promptly!

"Is it impolite to ask how you come to be Holdless and drawing at a Gather?" Carlinna asked, as the artists drank a welcome mug of klah in the middle of the day.

"Oh, it's a common enough story" said Vellara "Save that I have at least a skill to support myself. There was a coughing ailment; mother and the new baby died first, then my little sister. My little brother just coughed himself weaker until he died. That was at the back end of last winter. Father and I never even caught it; but keeping the cothold going was hard. I stopped drawing – my parents had never censured me for spending time on it with such materials as I might improvise – because I had to help, but at harvest father couldn't cope and he took an overdose of fellis."

"Leaving you alone and having to deal with his body? That's pretty fardling selfish!" said B'kas, angrily, tears springing to his gentle eyes.

"I – he was my father! He tried!" said Vellara defensively.

"Personally" said Carlinna "I'd have said he would have tried if he had seen his little girl somewhere safe, like the Weyr, before killing himself. We WERE taking orphans by last harvest."

Vellara flushed. Her eyes spoke of mixed emotions; resentment of her father's choice of death that she tried not to feel.

"I don't think he could think straight by then" she said loyally.

The artists sighed and nodded and patted her arms and shoulders in sympathetic comradeship; accepting and appreciating her desire to think well of what seemed to them a pretty inadequate and selfish father.

"Well, I'd heard about kids who were orphaned who were driven off the land and their herds stolen by other Holders or cotholders because the orphans could not efficiently Hold" went on Vellara "And I wasn't going to get caught that way. I buried my father, and I collected all the animals and hitched up the cart and filled it with fodder; and drove them up to Highspire Hold to sell. I knew I couldn't hold the cot alone, so I planned to have at least some money and see the beasts cared for by someone who wanted them. And I would have used that and only had to supplement it with drawing; or maybe purchase an apprenticeship with a Master Artist. Only I asked a Marksman to look after my pouch; and he absconded with it, most of my accumulated wealth, close on three hundred marks, because the cart oxen were plough-trained too. And when I complained to Holder Trabin, that tunnel snake of a marksman swore I was either mad or lying or mistaken; that he'd never seen my marks!"

"Draw him" said Geriana, her voice hard. In her opinion for two trained plough oxen and sundry animals the girl had already been cheated once by the buyers; not even getting a low turn's wages for them; though that was not surprising. People like Tragen would not cheat a young girl on her own but he was more the exception than the rule, and those who had driven such a bargain doubtless pleased with themselves at their cleverness and thriftiness and smugly unaware that they had cheated a destitute child.

Vellara looked startled; then did as Geriana bid, producing a rapid likeness of the marksman.

"S'negen" said Geriana "Be so good my love as to find out where he is; and when he's next due to be at Highspire. Then…. Carlinna, will you?"

Carlinna, picking up what was in Geriana's thoughts for a suitable revenge, grinned viciously.

"It'll be a pleasure" she said.

Vell looked confused; she did not yet know the High Reaches ways.

"What will you do?" she asked.

"Find him; look a little down at heel; and ask him to guard my marks" said Carlinna. "Then as a weyrartist denounce him to Trabin – who owes the Weyr a favour or two anyway – and mention your complaint too. Son of the – unmentionable place" she amended hastily, mindful of firelizards " – isn't getting away with THAT blatant theft!"

"Can't I do it?" said Boral, wistfully.

"It'll be more believable to a marksman that an older girl has that sort of money than a small boy" said Geriana "And if he gets violent she's taken more lessons from Y'lara than you have. You'll get your turn soon enough to do something active on Weyr business."

Boral made a face, but shrugged.

He had not really expected to be able to change Geriana's mind!

oOoOo

S'negen returned from his searches quite quickly and grinning.

"He's at Highspire Hold right now" he said "I've borrowed the marks from the Weyrcraftstall; shall we mark them with shellfish red?"

"Heh, why not?" grinned Geriana. "It'll be dry enough not to mark in a few days after all."

"Catch him red-handed – literally!" said Carlinna.

It was fun being a logicator.

S'negen dropped Carlinna near Highspire where she acted a little diffident, a little hesitant, and sat a while, fumbling with her pouch, checking its contents, glancing around. Any thief might have marked her out as ripe for plucking.

The marksman was a fleshy, florid man who exuded self confidence and looked well set up and wealthy.

Carlinna approached him hesitantly.

"And what can I do for you, little lady?" he beamed expansively "I've fine llama wool, or pretty jewels, anything a lady might like."

"Please, could I ask you to take care of my pouch?" said Carlinna "It's got rather a lot in it and I'm a little nervous… one hears such stories about thieves" she added, smiling ingratiatingly.

"Of course! No trouble at all!" he smiled an even broader smile.

Carlinna passed over her bulging pouch with a look of relief and gratitude.

She wandered around the various stalls always open at Highspire, S'negen doing likewise but careful not to seem together.

They met up examining leather goods.

"Might be worth while having a craftstall open here all turn long" she said "Manned perhaps by some of our fitter aunties."

"Well worth considering" said S'negen. "All right, he's had time to count it; how about telling him that you've changed your mind and you've found a good place to leave it?"

Carlinna nodded; and returned to the Marksman's stall.

"I – I've changed my mind" she said "I – I think I've a better place to hide my marks."

"I beg your pardon little lady? I don't quite know what you mean" said the marksman.

Carlinna registered shock.

"The marks I gave you to take care of – I want them back if you please!" she said with a note near to hysteria carefully introduced to her voice.

"Little girl, I don't know what you are talking about" said he "You gave me no marks. I suggest you get out of here before I call the guards!"

"You deny that I gave you a pouch containing three hundred and forty eight and a quarter marks?" said Carlinna.

"Yes of course I do!" he snapped.

"You lie" said S'negen, moving smoothly forward.

"Who are you and what business – uh, I'm afraid you are mistaken, Blue Rider" amended the marksmen as he saw S'negen's knots.

"YOU made the initial mistake, fork-features" said S'negen. "And you are coming to see Lord Trabin now. GUARDS!"

A couple of Hold guards came over.

S'negen looked them over thoughtfully. One of them was glancing anxiously at the marksman.

"Now I wonder" said the Dragonrider meditatively "if either of you take marks from this excrescence to be blind and deaf at the right time. Go and ask Holder Trabin to come here immediately; respectfully, mind, because a Rider of High Reaches wants to talk to him. And make sure you tell him I said please nicely because I WILL find out" he nodded dismissal.

"Blue Rider, this is all a misunderstanding! I'm sure it can all be smoothed out! This girl….."

"The weyrwoman" corrected S'nnegen.

The marksman went a pasty greyish colour that was most satisfying from some respects if rather displeasing from the aesthetic point of view.

oOoOo

Holder Trabin looked a little wary, but smiled in genuine pleasure on a High Reaches Dragonman.

"Holder, the Weyr heard a story about this man" said S'negen "And decided to test its accuracy. The weyrwoman here acted a little diffident and asked this …fellow… to guard some marks for her. Three hundred and forty eight and a quarter if you want it precisely. He agreed; and when she returned to ask for it back he claimed never to have had the money and pretended that she was mistaken and he implied either disturbed or fraudulent."

"They have mistaken me for another!" cried the marksman.

"Then you won't object to showing us your hands; for out marks were stained on one edge each with shellfish-red dye" said S'negen. "If this marksman has counted or handled those marks his hands will have red stripes on them."

"Show your hands" demanded Trabin.

"I – this is preposterous!" cried the marksman. "Why should I?"

"Why, to demonstrate your innocence – or guilt" said Trabin. "Show your hands or I shall summon guards to make you."

Unwillingly the marksman held out his hands, held sideways, and attempting to snatch them back after the least time; but the crimson stripes from the edges of the marks were plainly discernible even so.

"I see" said Trabin. "And I do recall another complaint against you before; a young girl whom I fear I dismissed as deranged with grief over bereavement and loss of her money, I assumed to pickpockets. I was sorry for her but I would not take her unfounded word against a reputable man; I thought she had made a genuine mistake. Apparently she had not. Blue Rider, is this the story you heard or do I need to track down yet another unfortunate?"

"It is the same story" said S'negen. "And that girl is now one of the weyrartists. We believed her story but still felt it only fair to test it. The weyrwoman here had proved it."

"Then I am able to provide reparation to her through you" said Holder Trabin. "She lost, as I recall, something around three hundred marks; he shall pay her double. He shall also double your marks. And he will be watched from now on and if the fines are not sufficient salutary lessons, he'll be drudging to pay off his debts."

"By the expression that passed between him and one of your guards, there was a financial inducement for them to back his stories" said S'negen grimly.

"InDEED" said Trabin, equally grimly. "Then I shall be undertaking some duty changes forthwith; and make sure the guards near the stalls are proven incorruptible. I thank you for your investigation, Blue Rider, weyrwoman; for both your discretion and your courtesy in involving me. And as for you" he rounded on the marksman "Now I find you have corrupted my guards I shall not be letting you be in a position to corrupt any more; because you'll be spending the next two turns in enforced labour, and the wages a drudge would earn will be paid to the Weyr's childhold too."

The marksman's howl of anguish was music to S'negen's ears.

By the time the two fines had been paid, the marksman would be virtually bankrupted; for he had already spent Vellara's money on good living.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Vellara was ready and willing to show how she had made her crude colour sticks; she had managed to obtain a few pigments and mixed them first with a flour and water paste which she lightly baked; but the dough crumbled easily. She had then tried with powdered resin heated slightly.

"But the resin is sticky and can leave yellowish marks" she said "It's nothing like perfect."

"Hmm. We use acacia gum and skybroom resin to bind pigments for watercolours; but that would be too wasteful to use as sticks and would moreover leave a thick, intense line as they are" said Bkas. "But chalk is a good drawing medium; if we experiment with those saps and resins and some chalk to make it less sticky and less intense we might get some interesting results. If you'd like to help me try?" he asked Vellara.

"Oh yes, please, sir, Green Rider" said Vellara, enthusiastically.

"Just B'kas" said B'kas. "We're all artists together after all!"

"We might used H'llon's print press to compact the mix well too" suggested Geriana "If it's drier, compaction should make it less inclined to powder."

"Good thinking" nodded B'kas "Reckon if I ask him, H'llon will even devise a machine to compress several at once."

"H'llon's clever!" said Geriana cheerfully.

oOoOo

The coloured chalks were quite successful; the only problem being that, like chalk and charcoal, they smeared easily, and required a layer of varnish to be applied over them by blowing it on through the spray device, a bent pipe, perforated at the bend, and narrowed at the end through which the varnish came. The other end was placed in the varnish and be bowing across the perforation at the bend, varnish was lifted and sprayed. By experimentation, some of which got rather messy, the artists discovered that a light application of varnish held the pigment; but that if the paper used was quite absorbent, it permitted the addition of more detail on the top. Most varnishes dried quite quickly in air, so H'llon turned a stone jar with a tightly fitting lid holed to exactly fit the blow tube with a leather collar to prevent it drying up as quickly, and a duplicate lid with no hole to store the varnish between use. This permitted the use of quick-drying varnish so that work could be rapidly started again. The addition of several tubes meant that one might be changes after use and set to soak so that they would not become gummed up with varnish.

The two artistic candidates for Daenilth's clutch, Mireela and Iaela took to the use of the colour sticks since both liked to design clothes and accessories, Mireela in cloth and Iaela in leather; and having a quick way to see how colours worked together pleased them mightily and they willingly paid for materials!

With so versatile a medium, and with a wide variety of colours, the weyrartists were able to produce colour sketches of Impression when Daenilth's clutch hatched; and there were colour portraits to sell to emotional parents!

They did however do their research first over which parents were likely to pay; and did a few gratis sketches for those candidates they liked. And as Mireela and Iaela were both honourary artists, the Weyratelier were delighted when both Impressed and became M'eela and I'la.

The pastels also came in useful for Geriana to rapidly create a bound book of illustrations for the young rider L'kar who was to take T'han's place at Northfork Runnerhold; the boy had a poor visual memory and Geri did her best to improve it by using Kim's Game, a traditional game where a number of objects were displayed for study, then covered, and the players had to see how many they could remember and how well they could describe them. She had the boy in with her own apprentices for this, as it was a way she used to train apprentices to look properly! With some time spent on that, and with a book of essential reference points it was to be hoped that L'kar would manage his duties.

oOoOo

It was only a couple of sevendays after Hatching to the massive Nabol Spring Gather; and the biggest race meeting of the Turn outside of Ruatha.

"We could draw winning runnerbeasts too" suggested Carlinna.

"You can't draw runnerbeasts to save your life" said Geriana cheerfully.

Carlinna flushed, but grinned and shrugged.

"But you and Vell can" she said "Anything that lives, that kid can draw."

"I like flowers and animals" said Vellara "I used to draw all the wild flowers and animals at home."

"And shall again now spring is on us" said Geriana "The boys will take you around; it'll be a valuable record. Also the designers will be able to use your sketches to make better floral representations. One day, H'llon will print books abour flowers and herbs and animals and their properties and habits and such; and he'll use your pictures."

Vellara flushed.

"Do you think so?" she asked.

"My good kid, I'm certain" said Geriana "Yes, we shall, as Carlinna has suggested, do portraits of the prize runnerbeasts; that's the sort of thing owners will like to have on their walls to brag about. Carlinna, will you do portraits as before? It leaves you a bit on your own I'm afraid."

Carlinna shrugged.

"I can handle it. One mark for ordinary sketches, three for colour?" she suggested.

"I'd say so" Geriana agreed. "And H'llon's put together some frames – or his apprentices have – to fit our standard sized leaves, to sell in addition if they want them, at two marks apiece."

"Excellent!" approved Carlinna "Have some for the runnerbeast pictures too. You might talk Tragen into having some of his beasts done first and gift them to him if he'll let you talk him into spreading some publicity on our behalf. If he has some to show others will see how good they look in frames and be more avid to buy."

"Another good idea" said Geriana. "We've still got three sets of dragonpoker cards too, two of High Reaches and a Benden; the boys have been printing the backs."

Vellara had wanted to give all her award from Holder Trabin to the Childhold; and Geriana had advised her to hold on to the original three hundred marks and use it to buy expensive pigments and so invest it in her work.

Vellara shrugged.

"I have a home for life here, food, clothes and useful work. Let the Weyratelier use it for pigments and etching acid and brass; it then pays back all you've done for me."

"And then a load more!" said Geriana "Heh, we've done well out of fines; Trabin's a softer touch than Bargen but I wager he was only so generous because he was so angry at being fooled! If you are sure, Vell, that we should use it; the Atelier will hold it in trust, taking it as a loan to invest. If you should ever want it back, we'll find it for you and I'll have T'rin write out a proper Harper-signed document."

"If you say so, Journeyman" said Vellara.

She cared little for the marks now; she had art in plenty, enough food and ample clothing, somewhere warm to sleep and a new family in the Atelier.

Marks could not buy the rebuilding of happiness in a life trampled by circumstances!

oOoOo

Geriana hoped that the Atelier would be able to sell books of printed flower pictures to the new Weavercraft Hall under construction at Rivenhill Hold, and the High Reaches Hold Weaverhall to take inspiration for new patterns of prints or brocades. Fellis was rather overused as a decorative motif!

oOoOo

The Nabol Gather was extremely successful, and Geriana was also able to go there _Between_ as she was in her middle trimester. This made life a lot easier, as she said!

Tragen did well at the racing; the more skilled gamblers of the Weyr did rather well out of betting on his beasts to place, and a good number of Ruathan owners were distinctly gloomy! The artists were able to cheer them up with lively portraits of their beasts however, relieving them of yet more marks.

Tragen was delighted with his pictures; and insisted on paying for them. He was a happy man: Kaili, although racing unicorn, was obviously pregnant, and viewing THIS pregnancy in a very different light to her last, rape-caused one.

The Weyr acquired more orphans, a girl of some ten summers and her three younger brothers; so the fund was certainly in need of boosting!

With this in mind, Geriana used the excuse of drawing visualisation to have D're take her to Telgar Weyr the moment there was word of a clutch there; and left him laying odds on the colours of the eggs. As D're could sense the colours through the shells, it was no gamble; but as Telgar had been particularly scathing about the High Reaches 'cranks and cripples' nobody at High Reaches held it to be in any respect unfair to clean Telgar's riders out!

Geriana was even more happy to clean them out when sneered at by Riders – who did not, as was the custom of High Reaches give her respect for her Journeyman's knots – over the very idea of drawing visualisations.

Geriana was pleased to be able to smile sweetly at the one-armed Bronze Rider who was Weyrlingmaster who thought to let his weyrlings sneer at the artist and say to him,

"Why, Bronze Rider, I am so glad that you manage never to lose any pairs going _Between_ for the first time without using drawn visualisations; it must be very comforting for you to have so excellent a training program. R'gar however likes to use every advantage he can get."

"Are you telling me using these fardling pictures reduces losses of weyrlings?" demanded the Telgar Weyrlingmaster.

"Oh yes sir; since I've been available to draw, Bronze Rider R'gar hasn't lost a single pair" said Geriana sweetly.

The Telgar Rider grunted and called his charges waspishly to exercise!

Geriana told D're about it; and he grunted.

"Well in that case f'sure, it's no qualms at all I'll be having t'be taking around six hundred marks by the time hatchin' is over" he said. "Sure, and hasn't T'bor himself agreed t'do the collectin' av it for me!"

D're had used a contentious remark here, a didactic comment there, and had stung a large number of Riders into contradicting him – and laying marks where their mouths were!

Such comments as

"Sure, it's an old Queen ye have, I'm not thinking she'd be up t'producin' more than one Bronze" almost HAD to have partisan Riders shouting in contradiction.

"And a pity 'tis, that 'tis not a trick that can be pulled more than twice at most, the second time when they want revenge on us" sighed the Ruathan Bronze Rider when he got back to High Reaches.

"Well not at any one Weyr, anyway" grinned L'rilly.

T'bor groaned.

"Don't encourage him!"

L'rilly chuckled.

"You mean he's incorrigible?" she punned.

T'bor gave up.

oOoOo

The Lady Petrilla had done sterling work in her reports on the states of the Holdless in various places; and having settled in Igen Holdless Cavern sent word to T'rin that she was caring for a remarkably artistic child.

T'rin duly collected the boy Tawn, who arrived entirely unabashed by a trip dragonback, heaving out leaves and charcoal the moment he was on the ground. T'rin had brought his sketches; and examples of another skill the child had developed, the carving of scenes onto shells so the limey white top surface had a graduated shadowing that enhanced the bas relief of the scenes with the darker inner surface showing through.

"He did these, apparently, with an old knife" T'rin explained. "Petrilla got him some decent tools; here" he displayed more ornate work.

"Tawn, these are EXCELLENT! How old are you?" asked Geriana.

"Eight I fink, lady" said Tawn.

"Well technically it may be too young, but I think you need us" said Geriana "Excellent as it is, there are a few bad habits starting to creep in, for with the better tools you've tried to put in too much detail and made it not only a trifle fussy, but also the scale of some things has been exaggerated – the figures are too big" she explained as he looked puzzled. "It is still exquisite work but you can improve."

"That's the point of bein' an apprentice, innit?" said Tawn.

"It is indeed. Well, apprentice, in the Atelier – our work place, it's an artist craft word – you can call me 'Journeyman'; outside of your working time it's just Geriana. As Carlinna is Senior Apprentice while you work and B'kas is 'Colourman'. We now have some dangerous chemicals; some of our pigments are poisonous and the etching acid burns. You will be instantly obedient to me, B'kas or Carlinna; and, when she has her senior tassels, which will be soon, to Vellara. Is that understood?"

The boy nodded.

"Lady Petrilla didn't take no shit neither" he said.

Geriana nodded, pleased.

"Good. You will share a dormitory with Sessel and Boral; I'm afraid we have no other artists as young as your, though some of the Harpers aren't much older and there are plenty of other weyrbred kids your age to play with."

"Will I be weyrbred?" he wanted to know.

"When you've been here long enough to know all the Weyr's rules, yes" said Geriana "You'll have a lot of free time; I'll not be working you too hard. And of course you'll have lessons with the Weyrharpers."

"I can read already" said Tawn hopefully "Lady Petrilla learned me."

"And there's always more to learn" said Geriana firmly.

Tawn gave in.

He knew implacable when he saw it.

oOoOo

Geriana sent her boys to the Minercraft Hall to acquire banded stones, such offcuts as were effectively white or milky on one side and coloured on the other, as well as asking them to go to the Island Weyr for big, fine shells so that Tawn had more variety to carve his cameos on.

She also made the child start to draw larger.

For the want of any better materials to draw on, Tawn had used flat river stones, scraps of fabric and pieces of bark and his drawings were tiny and meticulous.

He looked askance at Geriana when she told him she wanted large and sweeping lined.

"There is a good reason" Geriana explained "If you learn to draw larger you will be able to develop skills that you can then subsequently transfer to finer work. And in consequence, your fine work will be better too. It will help to give you a boldness of line."

Tawn digested this; and nodded.

The point of being an apprentice was, after all, to accept instruction! And it was not that the journeyman disapproved of his small work but wanted him to improve it by learning things large. He could see that; when he first started carving shells, the first pictures had been larger and cruder to learn techniques.

They Weyr was, Tawn reflected, an exciting and friendly place; the Harpers made learning fun, and the other kids were neither stuck up as he had half expected nor silly ninnies as he had feared they might be!

It did not take Tawn long to get into the gang of friends lead largely by Mikos,a turn older than Tawn and son of Blue Rider M'kel; and soon the young artist was found to be in as much trouble as the rest of them on as cheerfully regular a basis.

oOoOo

There was another weyrbred lad a turn or so younger than Sessel, Boral's age, who had begun hanging around the Atelier. His name, Boral supplied to Geriana, was Gwetar. Geriana gave the boy paper and charcoal sticks and he produced work that showed definite talent.

"Gwetar, are your parents making any difficulties about having you apprenticed?" asked Geriana bluntly "Or is it that they have no idea how much you love drawing?"

"Oh they know and they're happy enough" Gwetar smiled cheerily "But they want me to wait until I'm Turned twelve before I have a formal apprenticeship."

Geriana nodded.

"Very well" she said.

She took herself to have a quiet word with the boy's parents, Green Rider G'ton, one of the heterosexual Green Riders, and Healer Journeyman Westara, his weyrmate.

G'ton explained.

"He's as likely to Impress as any weyrbred lad; and he wants to stand as soon as he's of age, as much I suspect, to please me as because he loves dragons. We wanted him to have a carefree childhood first, and not have to worry about making the grade as apprentice. If, by your indulgence, you are happy to have him play with your apprentices in leisure time and pick up what he wants informally from them, I will happily pay for any materials you choose to let him use, or tuition as a paying student; but it will be his choice to do as much or as little as he wants for now. In a way, if it is not an imposition to ask, I should be glad if you'd let him see how much work your apprentices do for that should make him decide whether apprenticeship is for him yet or not, and if he DOES feel that he needs to draw enough to ask for apprenticeship early, knowing its hard work, we'd think again."

Geriana nodded approvingly.

"No wonder he's such a merry child with such sensible and well-balanced parents" she said. "Very well; I'm more than happy to agree to that arrangement; he's quite young for his age, and personally I think he's not likely to Impress for several turns until he's at home with who he is. And judging by his latent talent I would say that will be when he has proved to himself his competence as an artist. I can let him work with Tawn, who's an informal apprentice because of his age, and becaue he has been placed in my care. But the kid HAS to draw."

"Gwetar's like that" said Westara "We've always encouraged him, tried to help him see anything that could be improved in what he draws, but without taking away the fun of it or criticising too harshly; you do a child no favours with unmitigated praise any more than forcing them to excel."

Geriana beamed.

"I DO like the both of you!" she said "If only our Carlinna had had parents like you she'd have been Journeyman long since. I can't persuade you to foster any artistically inclined children who are way too young, can I?"

The weyrmates exchanged a quick look.

"I don't see why not" said G'ton "We have another child, Tonara; she's five but we have never had any others."

"Too much _Between_ on mountain rescue trips I guess" shrugged Westara.

Geriana nodded.

"Yes, I'm not sure if I shall end up having more than this one" she said, patting her belly "So I value him or her. Would – would you consider fostering my baby? I'm not the most maternal type; though my boys and I would want a lot to do with baby, I have been dreading all the – the babyness, if you know what I mean."

Westara laughed.

"I'd love to" she said warmly. "If you didn't mind I'd like Tonara to listen to you baby kicking and get her used to the idea of a foster sibling; she's at an age to be interested you know."

"Oh, that's nice!" said Geriana "Small children I'm quite happy with; it's babies I'm nervous of. How lovely; more people in our family!"

"And that's the way it should be" said Westara "The more adults a child has to love them, the more stable their childhood will be."

And that really summed up the extended family that was High Reaches Weyr, thought Geriana.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Geriana had taken sketches at the Harperweyr concert; and was painting a full sized commemorative painting for the Harperweyr in such few spare moments as she had; it was higher than a man and twice as long as it was high to fill one wall as a display in the singing hall that the Harpers were having constructed deep in their part of the weyr. It would be an impressive thing to greet the eye on coming into the main entrance to the singing hall and an inspiration to the apprentices! Geriana had used a sail to have a large enough sheet of canvas, and H'llon had made a frame with diagonal braces to ally strength with as much lightness as possible to allow it to be moved with, as he said dryly, less difficulty; since the term more easily implied that it might be relatively easy to shift. That amount of canvas was heavy enough, without taking into account the weight of all the wood and the paint. It was a challenging piece and quite the largest thing Geriana had ever done. As B'kas said, it kept her out of mischief during the last couple of months of her pregnancy!

Geriana was so hard at work that news of the theft of the Queen Egg from Benden almost completely passed her by; it certainly was not something that was relevant to the artist in the throes of creative frenzy! She did finally assimilate enough of the resultant brouhaha to toss off a cartoon however, of Lessa in bed with the returned Queen egg beside her, tied to her by the Weyrwoman's own long plait. The picture was entitled 'In case they try to take it back again'.

As Lessa in the drawing also sported wherrydown, Geriana's opinion of the whole affair, or rather the Benden Weyrwoman's reaction too it, might be readily gauged.

oOoOo

Tamalenth's own clutch led to Geriana's instructions to her apprentices to take lightning sketches.

"Sketches of the moment of Impression sell well to misty-eyed parents" she explained to Tawn and Gwetar. They would not be producing sketches good enough to sell yet but they may as well get in the practice. The other apprentices already knew how to cynically milk the affections of fond parents of newly bonded dragonriders.

What sort of Queenrider was to be expected for the unexpectedly small golden egg was a matter of covert discussion and appraisal of the female candidates.

The dramatic injury of Kullana, falling on greased steps in the hatching cavern and almost landing on the undersized gold egg led to an enquiry headed by T'rin and was subsequently followed by an equally dramatic hatching, and some of the sketches would be filed away in the Weyr's own archives as a trifle too contentious for public viewing.

The Impression in the tiers – or at least, off the true hatching area – by the giant drudge Re'ga was only one such drama; the arrival of a heavily splinted and bandaged Kullana brought by her future self to Impress miniature Queen Jeshimoth was another! Geriana noted the poor colour of the grown Jeshimoth and wondered if the pair would survive back to their own time, the future of the moment; but knowing Kullana – K'lana rather – she would accept the trade for a couple of turns of Impression, being a strange little girl and very self contained.

The Impression of B'mall from the tiers almost passed unnoticed.

High Reaches was known for its drama, thought Geriana; and plenty of standard Impressions took place to keep the minds of outsiders occupied and to bring the artists good mark.

The apprentices did well from their efforts, although they had become distracted at times from sheer emotion, for the unrestrained telepathic searching and bonding could be palpable to anyone with the least empathic abilities.

No weyrfolk ever left hatching with dry eyes, so there was no censure for slightly less work than might have been produced!

Some parents were particularly appreciative; Markin and Gwessela commissioned a proper painting of their twin offspring M'wes and G'sina with their dragonets; and Geriana gave Carlinna the nod to take the commission.

Carlinna was thrilled!

The parents were relatives of Holder Marlov of Riverbend, a small but significant Hold, and moreover Blood relatives of Lord Bargen, if only through great grandparents or some such; Marlov's and Markin's grandmother was a sister of Lord Bargen's grandfather; and the family had survived the tumultuous reign of Fax by pretending bumbling political idiocy! Marlov's daughter B'lova was the first dragonriding luminary of the line, and Siriwenne, cousin to both B'lova and the twins, was fostered by T'lana for being in need of love and being able to hear all dragons. Geriana herself had already taken a good price from Holder Marlov for a small board of B'lova sleeping in the sun propped up on the head of an equally comatose Linith. Giving Carlinna the commission was a real break for the senior apprentice; and one that showed her Journeyman's trust.

As Mirrith rose a sevenday after the hatching, naturally the unexpectedly wealthy apprentices were chuckling over the earning prospect to make even more marks when that clutch were laid and hatched!

Geriana was less happy; she felt hot, sticky, fat and uncomfortable! She was glad to lose herself working on the Harperweyr picture when she could; and left most teaching to Carlinna.

oOoOo

Midsummer was now over and over the next few sevendays passed far enough for there to be a nip in the air at altitude in the early mornings, and even a brief frost one dawn, rapidly burned off by the rising sun before most people rose. Geriana saw the frost because she had arisen with the first pangs of labour.

That is to say, she awoke feeling uncomfortable and with a belly ache and decided to beg a lift from Morvith to put in some early morning painting to help her ignore it; and took actual notice of the pangs of labour when the contractions were strong enough and close enough together to make continuing to paint a distinctly difficult business.

She threw down her brush with an irritated cry of

"Oh FARDLES!" leaving it to Gwetar to clean, the rest of the Atelier having risen and joined her by that time. Geriana went in search of Calla after bespeaking her lovers' dragons to collect them.

Geriana did reach Calla in time but it was a close run thing.

Gesenka yelled her way into the world, red and angry, just before noon and was promptly declared the most beautiful baby on Pern by B'kas, S'net and S'negen.

"I'd have said she looked a bit like a skinned coney myself" said the baby's mother dispassionately "But I dare say she'll improve. Scorch it, where's a pencil? I can't sketch her if I don't have a pencil!"

Gesenka was to be Geriana's favourite model for the foreseeable future; to chart her daughter's development was a labour of love!

oOoOo

Carlinna continued teaching while Geriana enjoyed a rest for a few sevendays while she fed Gesenka; and announcing after a month that her daughter was quite ready for caprine milk and porridge and handing her into the care of Westara. Calla had said that breast milk was most essential for the first few days and should be continued if possible for at least three weeks when a child could, of necessary, safely take sieved porridge and if colicky often thrived better for it. Some women breast fed for the year round or more as a supplement but generally this was, as Calla had pointed out, in rural communities where breast milk was at least free, and moreover the act of feeding acted as a natural, if not infallible, contraceptive.

Carlinna had, despite teaching duties, finished the panel of the twins, and before she might let their parents know, Geriana quietly purloined it and other examples of Carlinna's work, including work set by the senior apprentice for the youngsters; and begged a lift from S'negen while S'net and B'kas were still sleeping off the dragonlust of Morvith's last rising.

She wanted to take Carlinna's work to show Agatta.

oOoOo

Master Artist Agatta nodded satisfaction at Carlinna's work.

"It's just over the turn since I saw ill-prepared, immature work; she has worked hard, and so have you in aiding her. You are quite right, Geriana; she is ready. May I come and present the papers to her?" she asked.

"Oh I wish you will!" cried Geriana "I didn't quite like to have the cheek to ask!"

"Oh a visit to your Weyr is always a pleasure!" said Agatta.

oOoOo

Carlinna gasped when Master Agatta walked into the Atelier that afternoon, with all the apprentices and Geri's boys gathered to witness. T'bor came with Master Agatta to represent the Weyr, and L'rilly because it had been her idea to bring in a Master in the first place so counted Carlinna one of her protégés.

"It gives me great pleasure to present Carlinna with her papers of release; she has shown remarkable development and tenacity in a really very short time" said Agatta, not one for long speeches. "Carlinna, your papers and your knots!"

"I – oh Master Agatta, I don't know what to say!" said Carlinna "And its all Geri's hard work helping me, and L'rilly who made me think in the first place…. I really can't think WHAT to say!"

"Well don't say anything but paint work as good for the rest of your life" said Agatta dryly "Indeed, strive always to improve; I do."

"I SHALL!" Carlinna asseverated.

The others congratulated her and T'bor revealed the bottles of Benden Red and the fruit juices for the youngsters he and L'rilly had brought up, to celebrate as much as anything that Carlinna was now a useful and productive weyrwoman not the irritation she had once been.

"Will you stand again?" asked Geriana quietly as they celebrated.

Carlinna hesitated.

"Would you mind if I did?" she asked. "I'm not a genius; and I CAN face Thread, for I've been out walking sweeps often enough now."

"I think you should; because there's nothing like having your own perspective – and your dragon's – for drawing visualisation" said Geriana "I'm privileged to have images as well as conversation from Morvith, Dreth and Bayneth, but I should think an Impressed viewpoint might be even better."

Carlinna had not thought of that!

It was indeed a most significant point.

oOoOo

Search was not yet on; but when T'lana knew that Carlinna was planning to stand, she asked the girl to look after a girl called Aderina whom T'lana had collected from Benden Weyr.

T'lana advised Aderina to tell her tale; which she did, a little haltingly, of how she had pretended to be more sexually aware than she really was, because the other girls seemed knowledgeable; and it had ended in being raped by a Bronze Rider disappointed after a mating flight and carried away still in dragonlust who had not stopped when Aderina realised just what was going to happen after foolishly flirting at him. Aderina adored T'lana for understanding that she had just wanted to seem grown up; and for understanding too what humiliation rape had brought.

Carlinna nodded kindly.

"Posing and posturing is all some girls have I suppose; I guess T'rin would have some clever and utterly coarse way of putting it, so let's not ask him! It might make me laugh at them too much and it's wicked to mock the afflicted."

Aderina laughed and laughed; and felt better about her own self image compared to the girls she had aped in the light of Carlinna's disparagement of them!

oOoOo

Carlinna was to head the female candidate dormitory; because T'lana considered her steady. Carlinna was extremely grateful to L'rilly for giving her the opportunity to grow us so she might BE considered steady! Of course her Journeyman status also gave her real position in the Weyr; rather than pure age or social rank, the latter considered definitely no determinant for position by the weyrfolk!

Carlinna, Aderina and another early arrival, Geiona, had been fortunate to have the chance to get to know each other quite well and that made for a happy core to the dormitory as they all got on well.

It was however still possible to make embarrassing mistakes.

When K'iara introduced her sister Teffie, who seemed rather a fluffy creature, especially in comparison to K'iara, Carlinna assumed she was K'iara's younger sister, only to be disabused of this belief!

"K'iara's a good sort" Carlinna had said, wanting to assure Teffie of her sister's popularity "You're lucky to have her for an older sister."

"She's my YOUNGER sister!" declared Teffie, indignantly.

Carlinna winced and wished she could escape _Between_ someplace, anyplace else.

"Sorry; foot in mouth is my speciality" she apologised hastily and quickly asked if Teffie was looking forward to being an auntie; for K'iara was expecting her first baby with her weyrmate H'gey.

It was another conversational faux pas.

Teffie seemed to think that K'iara had been careless to get pregnant and could not understand why her sister had not asked to take the pregnancy _Between_; and too seemed to expect that K'iara would be flitting between lovers.

Carlinna rapidlu realised that the sisters were NOT close and explained bluntly about the concept of weyrmates being like a married couple. She thought Teffie a very silly girl. She also had to explain the logicators and the craft stall for the childhold, and found herself wondering whether K'iara never actually wrote home or if it was that Teffie never took any notice of her news.

In point of fact it was six of one and half a dozen of the other; K'iara was a desultory correspondent and Teffie was certain that her little sister could have no real news to write.

She would grow up or ship out, thought Carlinna!

Geriana produced a barbed cartoon of a disgruntled Teffie ticking off K'iara's Idrith for Impressing the younger sister first; and Carlinna giggled her way back into good humour over it.

And Teffie DID make an apology later by saying that she had a lot to unlearn, and hoped to fit in because she loved dragons; and really loving dragons was what counted.

The next candidate had already stood at Benden; and Aderina, upset, explained that this was a girl who had laughed at her as soon as she recognised the figure on the arriving dragon.

Geoina suggested pretending not to recognise the girl; Carlinna liked that idea too! After all this was a new start for Aderina, and it was Carlinna's responsibility to see that she was not upset.

The girl Larrina was patronising; and was most put out that Carlinna was chief candidate when Carlinna introduced herself as such. K'iara squashed her effectively before Carlinna had to try her authority and the Journeyman artist was grateful!

Larrina backed down; and even asked sensible questions about rules and custom. Carlinna wondered if she was perhaps more tactless than unpleasant; and explained the logicators and the childhold to Larrina.

When it transpired that the girl could not even grasp the idea of helping people altruistically because cripples should be put down – in her own idiom – with fellis, the whole dormitory exploded in indignation.

It was time for Carlinna to exert some authority as dormitory leader. The Journeyman gulped; and held up a hand.

To her pleasure the voices stopped immediately.

"For one thing, what you are suggesting is murder" she said coldly "We have autonomy, all of us, over our own lives to choose if we have quality of life or not, this right is protected by the Charter. For another, even if crippled in one respect, many have other talents. Blue Rider Harper Journeyman H'gey for example, a relation of our Teffie, had his back broken on Harper business; pretty ungrateful the Harpers and the rest of us would have been to murder him when he had given the use of his legs to stop renegades! And besides, it did not stop his ability to play and sing and teach. And he did not accept the verdict that he would likely never walk again and now needs only a stick to get around. Queenrider Sh'rilla, crippled with disease in childhood, uses a flamethrower on her adapted chair as well as any Queenrider and better than any in the old days who were crippled merely by convention and inertia. Radall, born without legs, is a very skilled woodcrafter. To say that those who have disabilities areuseless, you are talking from HERE" and she delivered a stinging rebuke to Larrina's own backside "And if you do not understand the oath a dragonrider makes you will never Impress!"

Larrina looked taken aback.

"The oath? To fight Thread? Why what has that….."

"The oath, my good ass" drawled Carlinna "Is to protect and serve the people of Pern. There is no qualification to that – no 'except the crippled' or 'except the Holdless'; nor does it specify Thread as the only thing to protect against. 'Protect and serve the people of Pern' it says. Quite clear I would say."

"Hear-hear" said Geiona "And if they need protecting from their own relatives, who in some cases are quite nearly as stupid as you, Larrina, that covers that too."

"What do you think you'd be riding a dragon for, dimglow?" said Aderina "Just to be decorative?"

"We have our duty; and besides that it is a matter of common humanity" said Teffie.

"Yeah" said Geiona "Tell me, Larrina, as an obvious outsider, what is your opinion of the human race?"

It was a phrase T'rin had barked at dirty Tanaish when taking a class in general knowledge and Geiona had stored it away in the hopes of the chance to use it.

"Well I think you're all incredibly naïve and childish" said Larrina, ignoring Geiona's question. "Where's the marks to come from to look after these cripples of yours? If you increase the tithes you'll soon get complaints – and small wonder!"

"Some Lords have donated funds" said Carlinna quietly "And some of us – most, actually – who have the ability to perform a craft for not being useless objects unable to shift, give our time to produce goods to sell on a Weyr craft stall at Gathers. And many of our cripples, when old enough, can earn enough through joining crafts, to support themselves. Radall, at nine turns old already earns four hundred marks a turn with his excellent work. Oh, and by the way, SOME problems can be cured by surgery."

"You let the Healer Hall experiment on them? Well I suppose that's one use for them" said Larrina

Teffie boxed her ears hard.

"NEVER speak so about the Healers" she said coldly "Surgery is not experimentation. Healers know what they are doing. My Grandfather has always known that his father could have been saved if his mother hadn't had such stupid ideas as you have! And it would have been a simple operation! To be so hidebound and ragingly IGNORANT in this day and age unless you come from a cothold so buried in the High Reaches as to be inaccessible for three quarters of the turn or were born a tinker girl without any education. In either of which cases you are due sympathy and help."

"How DARE you? I'm not Holdless trash!" howled Larrina.

"Holdless equates trash, huh?" said Geiona, her eyes sparkling dangerously.

"Of course! Such feckless creatures deserve to die out in Fall!" said Larrina.

"Ah well, Bronze Riders D're and Ch'vul and Green Riders M'ielle and T'arla, Gold Rider Sh'rilla and Blue Rider Harper T'rin will be thoroughly delighted to know what you think of them" said Geiona sweetly "As I am delighted to know how you feel about me too. Girls, this one has crackdust between the ears; let's send her to Southern."

"Seconded" said Teffie

"Thirded" said Aderina "If there is such a word."

"Motion proposed, agreed and carried" said Carlinna. "Other than necessary instructions, Larrina, none of us is going to speak to you from now on: you're too much of a waste of space for us to be bothered with you."

"How childish!" sneered Larrina.

"Then grow up and apologise and learn how to be a decent human being" said Carlinna; and deliberately turned her back on the girl.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Larrina's complaint of childishness to L'rilly had her fleeing from a beautifully constructed and insulting rebuke from one who weyred with a one-legged Holdless born cripple, Bronze Rider D're. L'rilly was substantially less volatile than in previous times but she was quite capable of losing her temper if anyone pushed her far enough.

Geriana had a cartoon for this girl too; only THIS one was posted in the main eating cavern, with Larrina sticking her head out of a cave to shout at dragons flying over that she needed to check their hatching status before she would let them protect her!

Carlinna was glad the next girls in were reasonable! Though Rillaysa took Larrina's part a little at first – on grounds of funding for a secondary self imposed duty like the childhold – once her reservation on keeping the relatively helpless were overcome she accepted the matter without any further question; as did Taswenne and Manella.

Of the last two to arrive, one, Niella, was quiet and inoffensive; but not so much as to prevent her from slapping the other, Nensa, for making offensive comments about the weyrbred.

Nensa had an odd attitude to sex; and a fear of dragons too, and what she might therefore be doing at the Weyr, Carlinna could not guess! The Journeyman had rebuked Niella gently, and suggested that Nensa should learn to think before making stupid and offensive comments, in case she irritated a blooded Rider who might be likely to spank her for her cheek. She then had to tick Nensa off again for calling that rape, pointing out sharply how the girl insulted the victims of real rape!

Carlinna wondered whether the girl was mixed up about her own sexuality through being a female homosexual; and accordingly approached Shuba to ask if she would talk to the girl and reassure her.

Once Shuba had returned, upset by Nensa's gratuitous insults, Carlinna apologised profusely. She took the whole to T'lana, feeling unequal to deal with this without advice; and T'lana pointed out that there was that about Nensa that protested too much, like aggressively homophobic Blue and Green Riders trying not to admit their urges to themselves.

Shuba herself had no blame for Carlinna; she told the girl that if only someone had explained to HER she would have been delighted and profoundly grateful; and that Nensa was just a horrid creature. But Carlinna was depressed about it and sought out Geriana.

"I seem to do and suggest the wrong thing always!" she sniffed hard "I shouldn't be dormitory head!"

"Yes you should" said Geriana "It's better to occasionally say the wrong thing with the right motives than never to say anything; or to say the wrong thing deliberately with spite. With this Nensa creature you made the right logications I'm sure; it's not YOUR fault she won't accept it! As for Teffie, no-one could really assume she's older than K'iara; she seems nice enough but mentally she's a lightweight. If she's brave enough to face Thread that doesn't matter; you don't have to be clever to Impress. And Larrina is, as L'rilly said a, er, thoroughgoing class one, grade 'A' Threadwit, plus the rest."

"Monstrous aberration of a veritable excuse for a human being raised on the milk of human unkindness to achieve new depths of inanity and fatuous wherry-headed nastiness that oozes out like a stream of spoken snot from her filthy little mouth" supplied Carlinna who had gone to the trouble of asking T'rin to repeat it – his phenomenal memory for words being legendary in the Weyr – so she could write it down and learn it.

"Less fit to Impress than a lice-ridden loving wench with a social disease and drunken habits" giggled Geriana who had remembered a little more. "HOW L'rilly strung that all together with such a beautiful rhythm! Almost sounded like a Harper!"

"But I'm still supposed to keep peace and harmony" said Carlinna, mournfully, returning to her original plaint.

"Some people just can't live peacefully with others" said Geriana "You sent Manalla to apprentice with the Farm Crafters, and sent Taswenne and Rillaya to sample crafts – you're doing fine. Believe me, if T'lana thought you were doing a bad job she'd have you in her weyr to discuss it."

That was true enough; and the little red haired Weyrwoman had not spoken a word of censure when Carlinna had consulted her over Nensa. T'lana took no crackdust from anyone, though she was gentle enough in her rebukes where only a hint was needed.

"Well, I feel better for offloading anyway" said Carlinna.

"Of course; it's what your senior Journeyman is for – and what you friend is for too" grinned Geriana, giving Carlinna a quick hug.

oOoOo

Hatching was on them before Carlinna even realised the weeks had gone since the clutch was laid!

First to hatch was a Bronze – always popularly considered to be auspicious!

Then dragons were hatching all around, and then better than wonderful, beautiful, gleaming, leaf-green Prissith was gazing lovingly into C'linna's eyes!

C'linna wept with joy as she led her ravenous lifemate out to find meat; to find all the artists ready to help feed and oil Prissith!

C'linna was too happy to care much about anyone else just yet though; she had become a real artist, she had real friends, and beautiful Prissith too, to crown everything!

Her art would suffer of course; being put to one side for Prissith's needs. But it was a fair exchange! And when Prissith was older, she could resume her craft and draw visualisations better than ever before!

oOoOo

The hatching rather eclipsed the finding of the Plateau of the Ancients; but Geriana and her boys found time to visit, drawing plans, views and visualisations for the Weyr.

It was mildly interesting; but disappointing in that the Ancients had found time to strip most of their belongings from the place. H'llon was interested in some highly illustrated printed children's books that had been found in some kind of teaching Hall.

When H'llon was subsequently created first ever Printmaster of a new craft, he appealed to Geriana for help with illustrations for new books; and she readily agreed.

The Weyratelier had grown beyond what she as Weyrartist could truly really justify for producing visualisations, though she might claim she was training youngsters to journey to other Weyrs; but being available for the Printcrafters gave the Atelier another reason to exist!

It was exciting; the idea of using whole sides as illustration opposite teaching ballads now paper was common enough was radical. And making the illustrations as instructive in their own way as the text, yet inviting and interesting so children learned almost without realising it by looking at them! H'llon's ambition that one day everyone on Pern should own at least one book, and maybe two or three was immensely challenging and exciting!

oOoOo

Into the Atelier's new and exciting activities came Lord Larad of Telgar and a skinny, mousy child of about fourteen turns, who was dressed in expensive but plain enough clothing.

"Journeyman Geriana?" The Lord Larad asked, seeing Geriana's knots as she came forward.

"That's me, my lord" said Geriana, pushing her hair back and leaving a yellow smear across her face.

The young girl suddenly beamed and gave her face some animation.

"Oh, you remind me of Master Agatta!" she cried.

"Well no-one could pay me a better compliment!" said Geriana "In my opinion she's the best artist on Pern – and one of the nicest people! But If I were you, I'd reserve judgement until you have seen my work" she added gently.

"Master Agatta advised me to bring my daughter to you, Journeyman" said Larad "Bonna here has had some lessons from her; but having recently lost her mother, Agatta thought what she described as you 'loving, effervescent family-feeling Atelier' would be a good place for her to apprentice formally."

Geriana looked doubtful.

"I've little experience dealing with bereavement" she said "Though our Vellara lost all her family through illness save her idiot father who took fellis and left his thirteen turn old daughter to cope on her own. Which she did, too; but she'd cried most of her tears by the time she came to us."

"So have I, Journeyman" said Bonna "I miss Dulsay like mad, but I want to work HARD" she added intensely.

"Well you're good – or at least have potential – or Agatta would not have given you lessons, Blood or no" said Geriana. "I'm prepared to accept Agatta's recommendation in lieu of examining your work. If you come here, Bonna, you'll have no concessions to your Rank; you'll be an apprentice like the rest you know."

Bonna nodded.

"I have a need to paint and draw" she said "That's all I'm interested in."

"You may stand for Impression to of right if you wish" said Geriana "Though if you mean what you say, art may mean too much to you to Impress; I never have and cost K'len a packe for being certain that I would."

"Is – is he your lover?" asked Bonna shyly.

"K'len? No chance! He likes to be fancy free; not my type!" said Geriana "He holds the book on all major bets is all. I have three weyrmates – and we are encouraged to have weyrmates not lovers – Green Rider B'kas who's like a sister to me, he's very ladylike; he's also the Atelier colourman. We share S'net and S'negen, who are brothers. And if you cannot handle that, my dear, the Weyr is not a good place to apprentice."

"Oh but are you all happy with the arrangement?" asked Bonna, all eyes.

"Extremely" said Geriana dryly.

"Then what other people think doesn't matter, does it?" the girl said.

Geriana grinned.

"You'll do" she said. "I'll take her, Lord Larad; good attitude and a desire to work. Excellent!"

The Lord Holder was perhaps a little taken aback; and Geriana grinned to herself. Evidently he had expected her to look upon taking his daughter as an apprentice almost as a favour done to her!

"You are very much like Master Agatta" he said wryly.

"No TRUE artist is anything but true to herself or himself; and his or her art" said Geriana "To teach someone who is not talented is to live a lie. Living a lie affronts the spirit; an impure spirit cannot paint truth. Will you stand for a Green Dragon, Bonna?" she turned to the girl.

Bonna shook her head.

"I'm not afraid of dragons, but I don't think I want to be a dragonrider. Caring for a dragon would take up such a lot of time."

Geriana nodded.

"It does; as my junior Journeyman C'linna is finding out. But she hopes that it will add to her ability to draw visualisations too; and there are those who can give equally to art and to dragons. It is their way of being true to themselves. I neither encourage nor discourage; if Impression is to be fore someone, it is. If you do not want it, you will not Impress and there is no point standing. Very well; you're of an age with Vellara, it'll be nice for her to have another female apprentice! One thing before you settle in; you obey me, B'kas or C'linna INSTANTLY: some paints are poison and the etching acid can burn. There are in any craft dangers and safety craft to be learned. Vellara, take Bonna to your room and help her unpack; and provide her with equipment from the stores. Then, Bonna, I want you to acquaint yourself with the Weyr and bring me back at least four pages of sketches."

"Oooooh, may we have paper to sketch as much as we like?" asked Bonna, breathlessly.

"It's part of your duties to sketch at least an hour a day" said Geriana.

"You have access to a lot of paper" said Lord Larad "I had to limit her."

"Oh, H'llon turns out bags full, fortunately" said Geriana "We never go short! He lets my apprentices help make it too, so they appreciate the effort that goes into it; they love drawing on paper they've helped to make" she grinned "I've got several rather small boys; they need to be kept occupied!"

"I've mostly boys myself" said Larad with feeling. "Well thank you for taking Bonna; I do plan to remarry, will she be permitted to come?"

"If she wishes to do so" said Geriana "But of course she may not; if she was close to her mother she may be upset at another taking her place."

"She knows Jissamy and gets on well enough with her" said Larad.

"Oh, she's been your mistress? Then I should think it will be all right" Geriana's face cleared "A stranger – or a mistress she did NOT like – would be a different matter, and I'll not have my apprentices upset by insensitive parents."

Larad stared; then gave a shout of laughter.

"Oh definitely you are true to yourself!" he said "Jissamy would like you – she's a straightforward lass herself! And I appreciate your protectiveness for my little girl that you hardly even know yet. I'm now doubly certain that she's in good hands."

"I'll do my best, My Lord; no one can do more" said Geriana.

He hesitated.

"Her mother – Dulsay – was a quiet, brave, self contained little woman. Bonna's much like her" he said "She – she might keep any troubles to herself."

"Thank you; I shall bear that in mind" Geriana inclined her head. "It's the sort of information a caring parent passes on; thank you."

Lord Larad was not used to the feeling of being dismissed; but he took it with good grace.

oOoOo

Vellara was a straightforward little girl, rather boyish in many ways, but very happy to have a potential female friend!

"Carlinna, or C'linna as she now is, was always rather too old to be a FRIEND" she told Bonna "And senior too, and then Journeyman. She's more a friend of Geriana. Have you ever had a special friend? I gather lots of girls do, though being cotbred I never had the chance."

Bonna shook her head.

"I don't have any friends; being Ranking means no-one was there to play with me 'cos I was to be left alone and treated with respect. And my cousin who's a bit older than me is a nasty selfish porcine, and I'd not want to spend time with her and her acquaintances. They peck at people and each other" she explained.

"So being Ranking is as lonely as being cot bred – I guess apart from siblings you're as isolated by Rank as I was by distance" said Vellara "Well if we've never had nobody we can have each other!" she added in a sentence that would have made Harper Teacher H'gey wince.

Of such are friendships made however; and though of very different backgrounds, the girls shared a love of art, and when Bonna discovered that it was Vellara who had invented coloured chalks she was filled with admiration and any reservations about the abilities of a low born cot child evaporated!


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

The weather was vile.

It had been sleeting for days.

"Right, that's IT!" said Geriana, after receiving a douche of cold slush that went right down her neck from a gulley between two of the seven spindles "We're off on a, er, working trip!"

"Where to?" asked Gwetar. He had knuckled down happily and was covering as much as the other apprentices and Geriana, with a consultation with his parents, had duly issued him with apprentice knots that he was very proud of.

"R'cal's island…. We need shells for Tawn to carve on and I need certain shellfish for pigments that I'm hoping B'kas will recognise."

The Green Rider Colourman grinned.

"Fortunately, yes I do! Masterweaver Zurg thinks it's his secret, but painters have been using the pigments at least since the last Pass!"

"I get to watch the Atelier, for you do I?" laughed C'linna ruefully "I can scarcely leave Prissith after all!"

"'Fraid so" said Geriana "Still, you'll be able to flit around on your own account later!"

"True enough" agreed C'linna.

oOoOo

The beaches were white gold against the azure sea; it was not tropically warm but it was certainly a welcome change from chilly High Reaches!

Geriana and her boys went looking seriously for the shellfish that yielded pigments – having stopped off to make themselves known to Holder Peder to ask his formal permission – and sculled about in a borrowed boat, S'net and S'negen taking turns to dive for the sea snails. Meanwhile the children played on the beach. Even Bonna, the oldest, ran coltishly about on the gleaming sands, squealing as the waves chased her when she dared paddle!

"Kid's never been beside the sea, has she?" said B'kas who was an adequate swimmer but glad to let his lovers do the diving.

"Telgar Hold. Nearest sea is weeks travel away and THAT's only the big river's estuary between Crom and Nabol" said S'net. "Sessel's taking her in hand, bless him."

"About time he took a little responsibility" approved S'negen "If he can do something other than dream, reckon there might be a dragon for him next clutch."

"He has everything else he needs" said Geriana "He's allowed to draw and paint all he wants; he's got the atelier as kin who love him and approve of him. I'd say he's actually settled enough now."

"Are we putting up others for the next clutch?" B'kas asked Geriana.

"Gwetar, Boral and Vellara. Boral's still young but I thought I'd ask if he could be included semi-officially, that he's there drawing near the sands; they all know the patterns the weyrlings walk, for picking up patterns so easily, he'd not find it hard to catch up if he did Impress and it's another widening of the choice" said Geriana.

"Not Bonna?" B'kas asked.

"She doesn't want to stand; thought it would interfere with her art. She's right at that: and if she changes her mind to be a less singleminded artist in the future, there's no big rush. She's only fourteen. OOPS!" she added as Tawn, choosing shells at the tideline, was swept off his feet by the swash of an incoming wave larger than the majority.

Tawn sat down hard, checked he had not damaged his shells, and as he scuttled up the beach out of the way of more waves swore,

"CRACKdust!"

"Tawn, there's a rock pool here" called Vellara "There's HEAPS of shells in here, and live shellfish too…. Some are edible I bet, I've seen some like them on sale at High Reaches Hold!"

Sessel came over at that to give a professional seabred opinion, bringing an excited but nervous Bonna.

"Them ones is good eating" the boy confided "You gotta soak them overnight."

"Why?" asked Vellara.

"To get the sand out of them" this was Tawn "I know. We made chowder with Petrilla in Igen. River ones you have to soak too but not for as long, Maybe it's the salt from the sea. Syeira – my sister – used to cook river mussels for us before Lady Petrilla took us on. They are zammo shells you've found, Vellara" he added, laying on his front to reach into the pool.

"We'd better ask if we're to gather any" said Sessel sensibly "Live ones I mean, for eating. There's no point if we shan't have time to soak and steam them."

"I'd say not" said Bonna "The Riders can't really be absent too long, can they?"

"Guess not" said Sessel. He brightened "We could take some back?"

"Enough for all the weyr? Reckon we'd be here gathering enough to soak the first batch!" laughed Vellara. Sessel pulled a face.

"There is that" he admitted.

oOoOo

The adults returned to the shore and agreed with the older girls that shellfish would take up too much time.

"B'kas caught a few fish while S'net and S'negen dived for colour shells" said Geriana "Which almost wastes the time packing all the meat rolls I did."

"I think we can eat fish AND meat rolls" said Boral.

"You can tell HE's growing" grinned S'net, winking at the boy.

Boral grinned back.

He all but hero-worshipped S'net and S'negen for rescuing him from his previous cruel master!

Sessel was not listening.

He had his head tilted to one side, peering up at the cliff.

"Riders, please, could one of the dragons lift me?" he said.

"Morvith says she will, lad" said B'kas "What is it?"

"I think I hear sounds of imminent hatching" said Sessel.

"So the meat rolls WON'T go to waste!" laughed S'negen.

Sessel was swiftly hoisted on the forepaws of Morvith; and in short order filled and passed down three sunhats full of firelizard eggs!

They were hard, covered in striations and the picking sounds of hatching firelizards was now readily audible to all.

"Don't the queens who laid them usually come to see them safely hatched?" said Geriana, concerned "I though that they Impressed upon the parent fair."

"A queen firelizard can suffer an accident" said Sessel "Or they might be a green's clutch. We'll have to watch out for them if they've no fair to belong to, see that they get through hatching safely, those we don't Impress so they can form their own fair."

"And we're all eager to take care of them!" grinned Geri. "Well, poor C'linna! We'll just have to ask for an egg for her if you lot all get one!"

oOoOo

The first shell burst in flying shards; a little bronze was the one who emerged and Sessel was first with an offering of meat to the little creature.

Soon all the adults and children were poking food at the clutch, with Viridian and Ochre humming encouragement!

Even Geriana, who was happy with her two, felt it behoved her to feed these poor hungry babes, who had no queen to care for them; and before she quite knew where she was, her original two had been joined by a brown and a blue!

B'kas, tenderly stroking a little green, a very miniature Morvith, laughed.

"You only need a bronze to have one of each colour, love" he said to Geriana "More colour names?"

"Um…..yes. Umber and Cyan" said Geriana decisively. "You?"

"Oh, she's such a miniature Morvith I need to call her a miniature name" laughed B'kas "'Mo' I think suits."

S'net had a brown; S'negen a green and a bronze; and Geriana was pleased to see that the children all had at least one each. Sessel had not bothered to feed more after little bronze Shimmer had Impressed to him; Vellara and Boral each had a green and decided to show off their knowledge of pigments by naming them 'Celadon' and 'Bice' respectively; Gwetar, not to be outdone, named his blue 'Azure'; and Tawn named his soft green and pale blue firelizards 'Seaspray' and 'Seamist' because he cared less about pigments. Bonna was enchanted; she too had two, a green and a little gold queen.

"Just like regular little dragons!" she said "I'll call the green 'Jade', and the queen 'Saffron'."

"Well that's the Atelier all at odds until we have them trained" Geriana pulled a comically rueful face. "Still, we can train them all together; and T'lana will help. And so will Viridian and Ochre; and they'll obey Ochre as an adult queen" she added thankfully.

Training them would not be too bad with such aid.

oOoOo

As a result of having firelizards, Tawn was a little delayed in working on his shells; Seamist and Seaspray wanted to help, and their help was more of a hindrance!

However when he was able to settle to more work, his pets being less volatile, the experiment was shown to have paid off.

The boy's work improved by leaps and bounds!

S'net and S'negen had also named their pets by the time they got home; S'net calling his little brown 'Bobo' simply for the harmonious sound. S'negen named his green 'Polla' for similar reasons and his bronze 'Snooty' for his air of superiority.

oOoOo

The news following on the heels of this group Impression of P'rilla Impressing the tiny sport Queen Deylith had Tawn wild with excitement!

"It is counted, isn't it?" he asked Geriana, anxiously "Her Impression I mean?"

"Oh, she's a Queenrider, of that there's no question" said Geriana "A Weyrling at Ista broke the shell; and your foster mother stepped in to give Deylith a life partner, knowing that small dragonets may not live, and risking being dragonless to give Deylith the love she needs. No-one will fail to honour her for that, whatever happens."

Geriana did not believe in being untruthful with children; and if the worst did happen the child would have to know that his strong foster mother would be shattered mentally for a greater or lesser period, if not totally broken.

Tawn drew his brows together in thought.

"Well that means we're always family here anyway" he said "And I can't see Petrilla – P'rilla I mean – LETTING a dragon die. I wouldn't dare if it was me" he added "She's aw'fly mother-y, but she can't half be stern you know."

Geriana hid a smile.

She would not put it past P'rilla to keep a sickly dragon alive through sheer will-power, and make it thrive too!

"Well, Tawn, she and the others are going to be coming here soon" she said "Two new fosterbrothers for you; and a foster father too."

Tawn nodded.

"She paints pictures with words she writes" he said "I almost know them, you know; I guess I should be nervous but I'm not. If our mother loves them, I guess they're lovable."

Geriana gave him a hug.

Sometimes small children produced more good common sense than a roomful of trained Harpers!

oOoOo

It would be a couple of months before P'rilla and her family came back to High Reaches; the Holdless Queenrider had duties at Igen to complete, not least easing in Voll as her replacement! In the meantime the main excitement was the inauguration of a whole new Crafthall; the craft of Printing having been recognised as a Craft on its own, with papermaking under its aegis too. It was as well, thought Geriana, that the Weyratelier was so large as it was, for H'llon, Printcraftmaster, even if the position was largely only administrative because of his duties as a Bronze Rider, had ambitions for the craft. He wanted books to be lavishly illustrated, especially children's teaching books, and too detailed illustrations in craft instruction manuals. And an idea Geriana had herself mooted a turn before would finally be implemented – producing fashion pictures and hand-coloured fabric pattern books for the Weavercraft.

One of H'llon's newly transferred apprentices, formerly a senior apprentice for the Smithcraft, a young woman named Glenlys, knew how to make etching acid; but another task of the artists would be to teach etching techniques to the new printers. Glenlys was competent; and to Geriana's delight, so was a friend of T'rn, and one-time Harper, a youth called Duthi. Indeed he was more than competent.

"You draw with facility and talent" said Geriana "I'd offer you an apprenticeship with us gladly if you preferred it to printing; you would make a fine artist!"

Duthis stared.

He was delighted!

As a Harper, though he loved music, he had felt a failure because he had not the same talent as many of his fellows; and he had come to try printing under the personal persuasion of Masterharper Sebell after having dropped out of his Harper Apprenticeship. He had never had the opportunity to attempt anything artistic, and had looked to music to fulfil a need to create; which had led more than once to him being punished for doodling on Harper exercises!

He smiled at Geriana.

"Thank you Journeyman" he said "But I gave my pledge to H'llon. If you will give me extra lessons so I may teach within my new craft I would be overjoyed. But for myself I will keep it as a hobby, save where I might use it for my craft."

Geriana sighed.

"My loss is H'llon's gain" she said "And your line work IS very fine – and suitable for printing from."

Duthi grinned.

"It's nice to get praise for doing what I used to be punished for" he said "SUCH a whacking I got from Master Morshal for turning an arpeggio into a flight of firelizards!"

"Barbarous fellow" said Geriana cheerfully "If you ask me, children would learn to read music more readily if it WERE illustrated – and the notes had a bit more personality."

Duthi chuckled.

"You're giving me ideas" he said.

"Why not?" said Geriana coolly "Keep a sketchbook and show your ideas to H'llon – and T'rin. I wager HE'D use such ideas even if the Harper Hall turns out to be too stuffy."

"Hey – lay off my old crafthall, Journeyman! I have my loyalties still!" said Duthi.

"Sorry, Duthi; I was out of line" apologised Geriana, touching his arm lightly in apology.

He nodded, accepting it.

"Well, it's another new idea for we printers to try" he grinned "And as I have the musical training, if not the talent, I can readily write teaching tunes."

There were numerous new ideas for printing! It was a good thing, thought Geriana, that the High Reaches Weyr folk were quite flexible; she and her fellow journeyman and their apprentices worked for Printhall and Weyr both. Of course the arrangement went both ways; for H'llon was seriously considering printing books of etchings of the most common transfer points for the weyrlings to use when they learned to go _Between_ to give them more visual backup at first than that of relying on visualisations of older dragons alone. The Atelier would add colours by hand after the line drawings had been printed; for few people, Geriana had discovered, could actually see colours in their mind's eye.

All of the etching process moved now to the Printcrafthall, with the artists permitted the courtesy of free access; and Geriana was not displeased. Her pupils still prepared their etchings under her eye in the atelier, but now took them over to the etching hall to be dipped in acid, under the supervision of a journeyman either artist or printer, to turn their work into a printing plate.

It all worked very well.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

That the Printcrafters considered themselves closely associated with the artists was proved yet again when H'llon decided to do what he called 'doing a T'lana' and put his oar in firmly to ask Master Artist Agatta to come visiting once more. Agatta was not alone when she came; she brought with her two other Masters. Perschar, widely recognised as one of the top artists on Pern, and Kellahan, recently acknowledged as a Master Artist accompanied her, collected by Melth.

Kellahan was bubbling with excitement at a trip on the big Bronze dragon, and even Perschar was very conscious of the honour done him by being offered a ride by an important man like H'llon.

"You wear many hats, Wingleader Master H'llon" he said after thanking both Melth and H'llon for the ride.

H'llon laughed.

"Well actually in some ways my duties as Printcraftmaster are going to be lighter than as acting Master Woodcrafter" he said "Because it's a very small craft and most of my duties are administrative; I function as an authority figure. Which I welcome; I can pursue the craft I love more as a hobby and be there to sort out the messes my journeymen cannot, and be big, fierce and backed up by a Bronze dragon – and a Melth's a big lad at that – if anyone tries to mess my people about. Being a Wingleader means I have to rehearse my wing in the complex formations we fly, though combining the two and having printed sheets of diagrams, courtesy of the Atelier, is very handy. Geriana suggested overprinting in progressively darker ink the positions into which the dragons move…..you don't really want to know all that, do you?"

"On the contrary, I think it an utterly fascinating thing that crafts can work together and be of use to our protectors" said Perschar "I think Agatta and Kellahan were hoping as hard as I that you might show us around the printhall, without giving away any craft secrets."

"None of it is particularly secret" said H'llon "The processes, like all crafts, take a long time to learn; and need specialist equipment. And I don't really think that it is in any wise courteous to hide craft techniques between masters. Indeed, I'd like to see more open discussion; Smithcraft, Woodcraft and Weavercraft come together of necessity to build the most complex looms; all crafts may have the ability to offer more to each other if only there was more discussion."

"The sky might yet fall if that was suggested too loudly" laughed Perschar.

"Alas" said H'llon. "Oh, and by the way, there's an as yet unofficial knot for Logicators; the Harper Hall recognises it. I know the Harpers recognise you, but I've been authorised to issue you with the Logicators' knot; you can display it or not as you see fit" and he handed over the complex square knot that the logicators had devised.

"Thank you" said Perschar "I thought my er, extra duties were not well known. What rank does this denote by the way?"

"Blame T'rin for my knowledge" said H'llon succinctly "He seems to find out everything that's going on. And we haven't troubled with rank as yet; logicators have always spoken up and offered ideas without prejudice, and we didn't want to change that until we had to; and when we do it'll be organised more along the lines the artists are anyhow, where participation and skill counts for more than rank and age."

"Well I am glad to accept" said Perschar, taking the knot.

"And I will be glad to show you all about after you have done what you came here for" said H'llon happily. After all, the more that was known about what the printers were capable of doing, the more customers they would have.

oOoOo

Geriana was surprised and taken aback to have a visit to the Atelier by so many Masters, and proudly showed them around. Agatta, who knew about the work in the Harperweyr, insisted on them being shown that: and back in the Atelier the three went into a huddle.

Geriana and Carlinna exchanged nervous looks. The children had been happy enough to show off what they were learning, but the two Journeymen knew that this looked a serious business.

The three Masters broke apart; and Agatta smiled on Geriana.

"I have requested the honour of informing you, Master Geriana, that three Masters independently consider your work worthy of promotion to Mastery status; not merely your own work but the excellent teaching and organisation that you have instilled here in the Weyratelier, that almost rivals more formal crafts in organisation without losing the spontaneity that typifies an artist" she said. "You are a credit to the craft. Will you accept your knots?"

Geriana gulped.

"I – thank you!" she managed "I scarcely know what to say!"

"Sure, and that doesn't matter" said Kellahan "Because you say it all with a brush or pencil in your hand; when it comes over as clear as if a Harper sang it."

oOoOo

T'bor sent a weyrling with a request for Master Geriana to come to his office after a visit from a Bronze dragon from Igen; and Geriana treated it as much as a summons as she had always been wont to do, though appreciating the Weyrleader's expressed compliments to a Master!

"Geriana" said T'bor, "This is Weyrleader G'narish; he would like to ask a request of you."

"You know sirs that I will always do anything to aid weyrfolk" said Geriana.

"Master Geriana, strictly speaking the aid is to someone who is provisionally a candidate" said G'narish. "It's a young girl called Lealla; she has a club foot and has been – well, owned is not to strong a term – by a horrid old woman who kept children to hire out to childspoilers. Are you aware of this problem?"

"Yes; our P'rilla has been sorting out things like that" said Geriana.

"Ah, yes of course; and her foster son is your apprentice. Forgive me" said G'narish "You probably know more than I. Lealla is a child P'rilla rescued Lealla who is in Igen Weyr now, and is to stand as a candidate. One of my junior Queenriders discovered that she could draw – Lealla was in fact helping her with her poor visual memory – and persuaded her to draw all the bad men who had hurt her to get them out of her system. Those, and a sketch of the Weyr from memory from her only time above it are examples of work I have to show you" and he handed over some leaves.

Geriana looked through them.

"She did these all from memory? That's quite remarkable" she said "She has a lot of natural talent. Was it your wish to apprentice her here and transfer to us as a candidate sir? I'd willingly take her."

"I was going to be cheekier than that, Master Artist" said G'narish "She has for the first time in her life made friends and seems to be settling in; and I wanted to steal you for enough time to teach her enough to get started."

"I'd have said she had more than got started" said Geriana "But I take your point; a few techniques to help her to do even better, a couple of bad habits to break, some pointers on what to practice. Will you give me a half hour please to put together a carisac of clothes and another of equipment and give my Atelier instructions for my absence please?"

G'narish grinned.

"Just like that? I don't have to beg and plead?"

"Oh helping people who have been harmed is the responsibility of all logicators, Weyrleader" said Geriana "And when they're talented it's a pleasure too. And a weyrartist will be of aid to you drawing visualisations so it also helps the Weyr."

"Take all the time you need, Master Geriana" said G'narish. "And thank you."

Geriana hurried back to her quarters and started issuing information and instructions while she put together a basic kit of coloured chalks to be able to give to Lealla, and other drawing materials in case she did not have them at Igen. She packed a little varnish to fix the pastel chalks and an applicator and wrote out the recipe for the varnish, being an atelier secret she was glad to share with any artist.

oOoOo

Lealla was a beautiful girl, pale, with pale blonde hair, standing out against the mostly well tanned crew in Igen Weyr; and her big eyes were a deep violet blue that looked larger for being in so pale a face.

Geriana itched to paint her and told herself firmly their would be plenty of opportunity when the girl was performing her artistic exercises; she was to teach her fairly intensively for two weeks.

Lealla was nervous but eager; and Geriana found her an apt and earnest pupil, fascinated and excited by the chalks, listening and nodding as Geriana explained the techniques of using them, erasing them, and fixing them with varnish by blowing the light spray all over the surface.

"You have many techniques to learn before I can give you release papers as a Journeymen" said Geriana after putting Lealla through a gruelling couple of days assessment "But your natural talent and hard work over the last couple of days is enough that I'll happily award you senior apprentice tassels. My boys and I will flit in from time to time; perhaps you'll come for an extended period to our atelier at High Reaches."

"I – I want to learn. They've been good to me here; if I can repay that by drawing visualisations I'd be overjoyed" said Lealla.

"You'll do" said Geriana approvingly.

She found herself explaining that she had never Impressed because the general consensus was that she was unlikely to share with a dragon when she was more likely to draw Thread than to fight it! as Geriana ruefully said, the jocular remarks of her friends were all too true and that the patterns WERE sufficiently fascinating that she might forget the primary purpose of a dragonrider, but as her weyrmates were always ready to give her lifts she did not feel the lack of a dragon as their dragons also chatted to her. Geriana felt that Lealla had a better chance at Impression however; the girl was talented and loved to draw; where

as for Geriana, art was the central pivot of her life and it could not be denied. Such subtleties make the difference!

She enjoyed the two weeks.

"Practise every day" was Geriana's last advice. "Draw something, anything, daily. And if you can draw other candidates who Impress with their newly hatched friends you can make a load of marks selling the sketches to their fond parents, you know!"

Lealla was startled.

"I – I'm allowed to make marks from it?"

"Too right, kiddie! Nothing wrong with a bit of private enterprise – I make top mark on dragonpoker cards, I buy the blanks from the Weyrwoodcrafter and I print my own backs. That'll be beyond you for a while; but when you've the confidence I'll have a set of blanks on paper-board sent with printed backs; our Printcrafters turn them out and they're cheaper if less durable than wooden ones. It's fun having a new crafthall attached to us – I'm teaching them etching and things" she wanted to make it sound exciting so Lealla would feel keener to come if she did NOT Impress! Though to Geriana it was no simulation; for she DID find it exciting.

It was wonderful that another Weyr recognised how much having drawn visualisations could help with reducing accidents; and this she said happily to Weyrlider G'narish as she waited for S'negen to collect her to take her home.

"It really reduces the accident rate?" said G'narish.

"R'gar – our Weyrlingmaster – reckons it means he hasn't lost a weyrling since we started using them" said Geriana. "The visualisations can be give to a young dragon by an older one, and the weyrling reinforces that with a picture to stare at. We have them done seasonally. We've mislaid the odd pair who went to the wrong time by a month or two before we compiled the full set of seasons, but never lost any totally. Visual back-up makes a lot of difference."

"Then I'll talk to my Weyrlingmaster; perhaps he can borrow some of your sets too" said G'narish.

Geriana grinned.

"They're coming out as printed books soon" she said. "Perhaps we can let you have some uncoloured ones and Lealla might then fill in the colours for you with watercolour paints. Especially if she's given lifts to check colours."

"An excellent idea" said G'narish. "Well, I set out to help her; and it seems that help is about to return a thousand fold."

"Helping each other out helps Pern spin" said Geriana.

oOoOo

The next piece of excitement was when P'rilla brought her tiny Queen and the rest of her family home to High Reaches Weyr. Tawn of course was very excited! When P'rilla dismounted from Melth however, before Tawn might greet her it was K'lana who ran to hug her.

"Your Delyth's even smaller than my Jeshimoth" said the child "'Cos I flew her _Between_ time to get me for hatching! Or rather, I will, 'cos we don't go _Between_ yet."

"Shells, I never heard anything so dangerous!" gasped P'rilla.

K'lana shrugged.

"If we die of it at least we've been together. It had to be done to get me there; I'd Impressed before the shell cracked you see."

Geriana shook her head. K'lana was an odd little entity; but she took sudden fancies to people and it would not harm if one of her fancies was a down to earth person like P'rilla! Tawn at least knew that K'lana and her sister had been hurt and found making friends hard sometimes; and as a generous child would not resent her sudden intrusion on a family reunion.

When Felerel dismounted, the entire weyr broke into applause; and T'bor came forward to welcome him to the weyr and explain how much the rest of the Weyr held him in honour. Tawn watched his newest younger foster brother stand up to T'bor thinking that their foster-father's tears of emotion were because he had been upset.

"He's all right that kid" said Tawn.

The little family had been provided with a small weyr down by the eating cavern and kitchen complex, between the lower caverns and H'llon's workshop. It was a neat little family cave, a sleeping room for Felerel and P'rilla opening off the tiny weyr, made large enough to accommodate a dragon up to Ruth's size. The sleeping room had its own necessary, and another off the shared bathing room, that all would use, and a further two caverns, one each for boys and girls.

It was Tawn who proudly showed his family around, having hugged each of his sisters and his brother, and then bestowed cheery hugs on his two new brothers, his new father and P'rilla. Geriana had given him a holiday to show them about; and P'rilla and Felerel were left quiet and alone to settle in after suggesting the children go with Tawn without adult interference!

Tawn, who considered himself quite weyrbred now, proudly showed his siblings and his new brothers around airily throwing around 'we do this' and 'this is where we….' sort of statements.

He was equally proud to show P'rilla how much he had learned when she and Felerel emerged.

"You have brought him on spectacularly, Geriana!" P'rilla said as she viewed his work "I'm so impressed! The only thing I worried about was that he might feel pressurised; but though I'm no artist I can see joyful spontaneity still in these most recent paintings; and he's eager to show me, not anxious so I reckon he's enjoying himself. And no-one could ask for more."

Geriana was pleased.

"That's what I call proper parenting" she said "You want what's best for him, but you want him to enjoy it. He's a talented lad; when he's old enough for a full apprenticeship I'm going to ask Agatta if she'll take him. She is the best; he'll learn a lot from her. I did, in just the few weeks she was staying at the weyr. He's working on lapidary and cameo carving; I've got him stones with layers in to cut away as well as decent shells. Oh yes, and he Impressed a couple of firelizards while we were getting the shells and I appear to have acquired a couple more too" she grinned ruefully.

"I called mine Seamist and Seaspray!" said Tawn, scratching the polls of his little pale blue and soft green firelizards.

"Very nice names too" said P'rilla "They're lovely, Tawn, and you have them in beautiful condition!"

Tawn kicked the table leg, pleased.

"Aw…Geri helped."

"High Reaches has well disciplined lizards" said Geriana "We're very strict about it. Even Lessa couldn't complain about them!"

"Why should she? Doesn't she like them?" asked P'rilla.

"Oh! Didn't you know? I'm sorry. It was Southerners' firelizards who gave co-ordinates to allow their Bronzes to steal the Queen egg; Lessa's been a bit….antagonistic to firelizards, even though other firelizards helped Jaxom find and return it, and find D'ram when he went _Between_ time to mourn Fanna. Oh, lots has happened and I guess most of it hasn't been allowed to get far out of Benden Weyr; like they've found where the ancients originally landed, and some teaching books not unlike what H'llon's been making, with good big letters to help little ones – most archivists on Pern are having apoplectic fits at such large writing – and they're plainly printed, vindicating Elissa's invention yet more. And we do other people's secrets here, being logicators, so we probably know most of the things Benden would rather we didn't" she added cheerfully.

"Well, I seem to have missed more news than I found!" said P'rilla, a little chagrined.

Geriana shook her tawny mop of curls.

"Oh no, not really! YOU found what we couldn't, and discovered more depths of perfidy than we could even have guessed at. It's been exceedingly valuable for the logicators, I assure you; and gives us signs to look out for things to stop in other places. You're a skilled logicator, P'rilla. We'll be glad to have you to add your thoughts to discussion here."

"Well, I'm happy to help; and pleased that I already have" said P'rilla "But I have to say that I feel quite in a whirl – so much has happened, and I missed it! And what I'm sore about I guess" she added honestly "Is that it's said that ALL information goes through the Igen caverns; and so I made an assumption. It was a false one, weyrs can close down more on their secrets than Holds."

"Well, I guess you'll soon catch up on anything that's important; the hissy fits of the more volatile Benden Riders aren't" said Geriana "Hey, and don't you let anyone pester you over what you dug up; we're all nosy of course, but you're entitled to time to settle in, and get to know your sisters and adjust to weyr life before getting questions fired at you!"

Tawn was convinced that he was the happiest boy on Pern.

He had a craft he loved, all the equipment he could ask for to carry it out, wonderful fellow apprentices, good friends and now his family were with him too.

He could not see how life could ever hold any more!


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Cold High Reaches winter was coming to an end; and as Spring arrived in a sudden blaze of green, Segrith took herself into the hatching cavern and laid a clutch of seventeen eggs. It was not a large clutch; but Segrith was an Oldtimer Queen and was not supporting the Weyr's breeding on her own by a long chalk. Bronze Rider B'mall postulated a theory that a larger number of Queens with smaller clutches would actually improve the breeding stock more than a single or pair of Queens doing most of the breeding; and though he had only Impressed just before Segrith had risen he had been technically out of age and his opinion carried weight, as he was already well respected. Geriana promptly drew a cartoon of B'mall informing Segrith that they would have to work out a schedule for the choice of different Bronzes for each of the Queens to make the breeding even better spread around, and B'mall laughed heartily!

M'gol and J'nara asked Geriana for a portrait of their baby twins, since, as M'gol said, if half the apprentices were to stand for the clutch, there would not be much time for a reduced efficiency atelier after hatching and besides they had got to the interesting stage of no longer looking – as all small babies did – like Lord Groghe and were between teething both at once.

He got poked by J'nara; but Geriana was very happy to take the commission. M'gol and J'nara were one of the most popular couples in the Weyr; and Marthara and Jenol were delightful babies. Geriana chose to do the picture in pastel chalks to give it a baby softness; and to catch the babies with swift strokes.

oOoOo

Boral, Gwetar, Sessel and Vellara moved in with the candidates; the boys already knew two of the male candidates since they were Chorlo and Piaz, Tawn's brothers and therefore more or less family; Vellara already knew Carinn who was having a final attempt, and Malitta who was semi official; Lekelle, another of K'len's sisters was standing this turn and so was Ipominea of the printcraft, half sister of P'rilla and full sister of M'iandra and I'linne. Telfer the new Weyrwoodcrafter was being put to egg as well, more openly than had his predecessor, H'llon! Syeira, sister to Chorlo, Dessi and Tawn, was not to stand; she wanted a little more maturity.

Older female candidates included Jeinne and Neminda, who were lovers; and Jeinne's little sister Linnara who had been firmly rescued from being used as a marriage pawn in her sister's place and who suffered from fits for which her father punished her. Po, as Ipominea was known, had sorted her out into joining the printcrafters.

Chorlo and Piaz, as well as making friends with two other boys, managed between them to get a tentative friendship with the most unpopular long term male candidate, Rorik, after discovering that his attempts to please his father never seemed to succeed; and the boy stopped throwing his weight around as much. It may be said that of the younger boys, the artists tended to stick much together; they were already friends and had a lot in common. None of the printcrafters were to stand this time, save Ipominea, so they had no acquaintances from the printhall; and they were sufficient unto each other.

oOoOo

Hatching had an auspicious beginning; two Bronzes erupting from their shells at once, a very good number for so small a clutch. And one of them found his way into the arms of Tawn's brother Piaz, now P'az, and the other Impressed to his friend Roberthal, now R'thal. Chorlo, who had half expected not to Impress at all, found himself regarding the expectant gaze of Brown Bennoth who was as big as either of the Bronze dragonets.

Bonna was down on the sands with the candidates but with her sketchbook; Geriana had positioned her there both for the exercise of trying to catch the moment of Impression and because then life would be easier if there was a dragon for the girl. This Bonna was completely oblivious to, just doing her best to capture as many magical moments as she could.

Geriana could hardly refrain from cheering as Vellara became V'lara when chosen by a dainty little Green; and when Sessel and Gwetar each Impressed a Blue. Her artists now had that different perspective and nobody could complain that she had too many apprentices for a weyrcrafthall when most of them were now Impressed. Bonna started to fold up her things, emotional purely from the wonderful experience and unaware that Geriana had wondered if she might share it. Boral on the other hand looked close to tears when all the Impressions were over, and there was no dragon for him; and Geriana hurried down to hug him.

"Oh Master!" said Boral "I did so hope!"

"You're still on the young side" said Geriana. "Stand back for a few Impressions more; because if there is a dragon for you he'll find you in the tiers. And S'sel and G'tar and V'lara will appreciate some help from you – which will prepare you better for your own turn one day!"

"Thank you Master" said Boral. "But – well, you know."

"I know" said Geriana softly. "And so does C'rinn – look, after waiting for many hatchings, she's Impressed!"

Boral brightened.

"That's true" he said "And I guess I AM quite young."

He would put it behind him and move on to work hard; Boral was a sensible lad.

Ipominea on the other hand was about to have her work as a Printer cut out for a while as she too had Impressed; and Geriana grinned as H'llon discussed with her which of her too many syllables would contract. The girl suggested starting with her nickname, Po; and Po'nea was what she became! Geriana was busy being nosy about who else had Impressed, and was glad to see T'lana's theories vindicated when J'inne Impressed a Blue, and her lover became N'minda by Impressing a Green. Dragons tended to know; and the youth Rorik too became R'rik with a little Green lifemate.

Geriana did not find out at that time exactly what happened, though it was subsequently discussed by the logicators, but the boy's father, instead of being pleased and proud that his son had managed to Impress threw something of a tantrum and was removed fairly forcibly from the Weyr by L'nna who apparently dropped him – literally – back at High Reaches Hold from a length or so up when the man tried to grapple with her to get control of a knife that had needed to be taken from him.

It had been an eventful hatching; but as Geriana shrugged and quoted T'lana, it wouldn't be High Reaches without drama.

"Well I guess any pictures of R'rik with Dilbeth won't be saleable to his parents then" quipped C'linna.

"Ya reckon?" laughed Geriana. "Well Bonna, I hope that wasn't one of the Impressions you were drawing!"

Bonna laughed.

"I was too busy trying to capture the moment for the Atelier family" she said.

"Well I shall review your sketches later" said Geriana "In the meantime you have permission to help V'lara with her new friend!"

Bonna needed no second prompting!

Geriana laughed to herself.

She was down to three fully operational apprentices in Bonna, Boral and Tawn; and that was more than she would ever have dreamed being under her training ever. Life in the High Reaches was just wonderful!

**Fin**

**Well I'm still transcribing the next one so you may have to wait a little or be prepared for less frequent updates!  
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